U2
U2 is pretty much the biggest working rock band in the world, right? The Stones might give the band an occasional challenge in that category, but Keith and Mick are essentially retirees now. And U2 still releases new records every five years or so, though it might not be huge news in the world of pop music.
Bono and crew made themselves beloved by taking the force of post-punk and making big anthemic songs propelled by the Edge’s chiming guitars and the martial drive of the rhythm section. The band wedded uplift with emotion, solemnity and politics.
They’re still aiming high, with their most recent two albums taking on the vast yin-yang scope of the William Blake-themed notions of innocence and experience. The guitars sound a little more guitar-like than they have on many previous U2 records, with the ringing digital-delay effects given a back seat. But Bono maintains his quest for epic inspiration, writing about how love is the only thing that lasts or matters, how our emotions and desires sometimes get in our own way, and how freedom is the true force of change and motion in life.
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It’s obvious that Bono and the band were reeling from the reaction to the political upheaval of 2016, to the American presidential election and to the Brexit vote before that. Naysayers find U2’s grand ambitions to be a sign of outdated rock hubris, but there’s still something nice about singing songs about love, endurance, justice and triumph.
U2 plays the Mohegan Sun Arena, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd., Uncasville, on Tuesday, July 3, at 8 p.m. $41 and up. 860-226-7711 and mohegansun.com.
King’s X
King’s X is the rare prog-metal band that also has a fair bit of soul and Beatles-esque vocal harmony chops thrown in with its riffage. The trio occupies a strange point of overlap where fans of bands like Soundgarden and artists like Lenny Kravitz can come together. But King’s X were making that peculiar blend before many fans knew what to make of it.
There’s funk and gospel woven into their songs as well. Some have said the Missouri band invented the grunge sound, but its eclecticism makes it closer in spirit to bands like Primus, Prince, Living Colour and Voivod than to Nirvana.
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It’s interesting to listen to the band’s 1989 record “Gretchen Goes to Nebraska” for a taste of how wide-ranging and unpindownable the band was nearly 30 years ago.
See King’s X at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven, on Friday, June 29, at 9 p.m. Tickets are $30. toadsplace.com, 203-624-8623.
Read: The Insane Line-Up For Farm Aid 2018 In Hartford
Reba McEntire
Not every superstar singer can hold down their own sitcom. The two areas of entertainment don’t always meld. But Reba McEntire — it’s not just Reba — did it. She had already dipped a toe into working on Broadway (in “Annie Get Your Gun”)
Raised in Oklahoma, McEntire released her first solo album over 40 years ago. On it she sounded a little like a more self-restrained Tanya Tucker or Sammi Smith. McEntire has always had a slight note of sadness in her voice, a quality that gets obscured by her energetic good cheer. When she sings, she can turn an extended vowel into a quiet moan, or she can round off a note with a subtle teeth-gritted growl.
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She’s called the Queen of Country for a reason. She’s one of only a handful of artists who could assemble a “50 Greatest Hits” album. Uplift, redemption, perseverance, faith, and enduring love are what she sings about.
Reba McEntire performs at the Grand Theater at Foxwoods, 350 Trolley Line Blvd., Mashantucket, on Friday and Saturday, June 29 and 30, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $65 to $125. foxwoods.com.
Sam Hunt
There are loads of country artists fusing country, pop, rock and hip-hop. Few of them do it as successfully and organically as Sam Hunt, who recently released a single, “Down Town’s Dead,” that continues his formula of using sparse production, a big slow beat, rap-inflected phrasing, and Hunt’s cool-but-vulnerable singing.
Hunt’s lyrics are what make his songs memorable. He has a way of linking landscape (downtown, country roads, grassy parking spots) with romance and love gone wrong.
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And where other artists turn transgression (partying in the woods) into a cliche, Hunt makes a run-in with the police the setting for kindling a relationship (“Cop Car”). House parties and small-town break-ups are where Hunt finds some of his most resonant material.
Sam Hunt performs at Xfinity Theatre, 61 Savitt Way, Hartford, on Friday, June 29, at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $44.48. livenation.com.
Kamasi Washington
Saxophonist and composer Kamasi Washington’s music is big and round, sprawling, organic and gnarly.
He’s released a couple new singles recently. (He’s shown appearing to walk on water in a Shangri La mountain setting on the cover image.) One of the tracks, “Street Fighter Mas,” has a beguilingly alien bass sound that anchors the groove, with double-tracked drums (or just two drummers), a chorus of vocalists who provide stately wordless ascending “ahs.”
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His new double album, “Heaven & Earth,” came out this week. There’s a connection to the Coltrane legacy (to John and Alice), in the ecstatic ambition, but there’s also a connection to Prince in the weirdness of the funk, and to Ennio Morricone, in the scene-setting otherness. Washington — who is from Los Angeles, and has worked with artists like Kendrick Lamar and Flying Lotus — has altered some of the geographical polarities in the jazz world, upping the mass and gravity of the West Coast in the popular imagination.
Exotica, ‘70s TV theme music and soul all wind their way through Washington’s music. His playing, particularly on the newest songs, is interestingly precise and constrained, with an almost staccato attack at times that seems in contrast to the cosmic diffusion of the music overall. Washington can contribute to the galactic swirl.
Kamasi Washington plays Fairfield Theater Company’s Warehouse, 70 Sanford St., Fairfield, on Thursday, June 28 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $38 to $48. 203-259-1036 or fairfieldtheatre.org.
Blessid Union of Souls
Listen to some of its songs and you might walk away thinking Blessid Union of Souls makes quirky pop that has something in common with Barenaked Ladies and They Might Be Giants.
But skip around and you stumble on a song like its hit “I Believe,” an earnest soft-soul bit of piano balladry with a spritz of shmaltz that states the simple and time-honored hope that “love will find the answer” and that people can come together and transcend prejudice.
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The Ohio band just released “I Still Cry at Movies,” a tender ballad that finds the BUOS touching on religious themes, which fits in with its praise-music mode of recent years. The band’s sense of drama, dynamic build ups, and simple attitude of gratitude will resonate with listeners in search of messages about grace, eternal life and forgiveness.
See Blessid Union of Souls at Infinity Hall, 32 Front St., Hartford, on Friday, June 29, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 to $49. 866-666-6306 and infinityhall.com.
Tim Barry
To say that Tim Barry went from being a punk to being a folkie is a little misleading. True, Barry fronted the Richmond, Va., band Avail in the ‘90s, and he sort of traded in his electric for an acoustic, but the songs are still pretty punk. The same three chords, the same melodies that hearken back to the Clash, the same raw anger, the same looming loneliness.
Many of Barry’s songs point back to “I Fought the Law” as a template, both in theme and in sound. Barry is the kind of folk singer who writes about jumping trains and snorting methamphetamine. It’s not the Kingston Trio.
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The restlessness never quite goes away. “Between work, and drinking and fighting, there ain’t much else,” sings Barry on “Slow Down” off of his latest album, “High On 95.” Blowing town is a recurring theme. “Let’s see how much being gone we can take,” he sings on “Riverbank,” a song about heading to the woods and hiding from the world. Fans of Springsteen who can handle some 21st century American grit, nihilism and rootlessness might find a lot to like in Barry’s songs.
Tim Barry plays the Space Ballroom, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden, on Thursday, June 28, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15. 203-288-6400, spaceballroom.com
