Jon Shain NO TAG, NO TAIL LIGHT (Flyin’)

Acoustic singer-songwriter Shain grew up in Haverhill, which is why his lyrics about fallen factories and a richer past ring as right as his allusions to stone bridges and textile mills in the hard-luck song "Merrimack." But the music here sounds like, more or less, blues — tinged with pop, a little old-time swing, and traditional folk. Shain learned to play that way after he enrolled in Duke University in the late ’80s and majored in history with a concentration in Southern musical traditions; that led, as it often does, to a veteran mentor. Under Richard "Big Boy" Henry’s wing, Shain, who now lives in Durham, learned to finger-pick in the Piedmont blues style and developed his own fusionist approach on guitar.

Produced by Boston-based drummer Dave Mattacks, a Fairport Convention veteran who also plays on the album, No Tag, No Tail Light is a ramble through commonplace lives. Sweet simple love songs tumble into remembrances of friends and futures lost. Escape fantasies dwell next to internal examinations and calls to personal action. "Merrimack" does the best job of creating a sense of place in Shain’s lyrics. For the most part, it’s the music — especially his roiling John Hurt–like picking on "Philly Girl" — that conjures idealized visions of the American landscape as a place of open roads, open hearts, and open wounds.

(Jon Shain appears tonight, November 4, at Capo’s, 98 Middle Street in Lowell; call 978-453-5755. )