Roadtrips

Even if, as he's fond of saying, Hank Williams III is in the country-music racket only for the money that the family name brings in, the music he's made lately in the name of commerce has been no less eerie in its evocation of his grandfather. That's especially true of his twine-reedy voice, which is given to an occasional lonesome-blue yodel that recalls Hank the First's stylistic forebear Jimmie "The Singing Breakman" Rodgers. And for those, like Social Distortion's Mike Ness and the Reverend Horton Heat, who have sought explicit parallels between punk and its roots in American folk music, the sight of Hank Williams's seed wearing a Black Flag T-shirt and belting out Johnny Cash tunes, or rendering both his grandfather's "Ramblin' Man" and Merle Haggard's "Okie from Muskogee" on an album by the Melvins, is hearty affirmation indeed. So too is his latest tour, on which he's accompanying the Reverend Heat on a jaunt through the Northeast that brings them, along with Providence's Amazing Crowns, to Avalon (617-423-NEXT) on May 6. After that Hank and Horton break camp as the Reverend Heat makes his way to Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on May 12 with masked surf marauders Los Straitjackets.

Dispelling the notion that most hardcore is just metal played by beefy dudes with buzzcuts, Massachusetts's small but vocal population of heavy-metal purists has been after the promoter of the annual Mass Metal and Hardcore Festival to produce an event that excises the hardcore portion of the program. The result? This Saturday's all-ages Mass Metalfest at the Palladium (508-797-9696) in Worcester. On the bill: Amorphis, Moonspell, Kovenant, Nile, Internal Bleeding, Shadows Fall, All That Remains, Fleshgrind, Shango, and more than a dozen others on two stages. Less-particular metal fans may be interested in industro-zombies Static-X, Pitchshifter, and Ultraspank at Lupo's the following day, May 7. And the new version of Veruca Salt -- Louise Post and a cast of ringers -- hits the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence on May 11, as we get word that the Salt's other half, Nina Gordon, is preparing at long last to release her solo album, Tonight and the Rest of My Life (Warner Bros.), which she recorded with former Saltie Stacy Jones and a few of his old Letters to Cleo pals. Gordon's new press bio manages to ramble on for four pages without once mentioning the name "Louise" or "Post."

Mix Master Mike -- ubiquitous in these parts lately -- and MTV's DJ Skribble top the all-day "DJ Fest 2000" at Worcester's Green Hill Park (617-931-2000) on May 6. Elsewhere, you could program your own festival of garage-punk legends in Worcester: the Fleshtones with the Downbeat Five at Dinny's (508-752-9667) on May 6; the Lyres at Ralph's (508-753-9543) that same night; something called Dead Elvis and the Colonel at the Lucky Dog Music Hall (508-363-1888) on May 7. And one of the finest bluegrass fiddler-singers in the country, Alison Krauss, hits the Orpheum (617-931-2000) in Boston on May 6 and the Calvin Theatre (413-586-8686) in Northampton on May 7.
-- Carly Carioli