David Olney plays at Maxines Saturday night.

  • David Olney plays at Maxine’s Saturday night.

DAVID OLNEY, SERGIO WEBB
8 p.m. Maxine’s. $5 adv., $7 door.

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David Olney might not be a household name like John Prine or Guy Clark or Townes Van Zandt. Or he might be, depending on the hipness of your particular household. But over the last three decades or so, this veteran singer/songwriter has created a huge body of songs that hit many of the same folk/country/blues sweet spots as those aforementioned greats.

Olney’s voice has an unadorned appeal to it. There aren’t a lot of flourishes or fanciful flitting arounds or affected gravelliness. It’s more like a simple but well-made tool that does its job without getting in the way. The job in this case is the telling of stark tales of lean times, of the monsters of history, of losers’ lamentations, of criminals’ plots and of the bad old fashioned blues, all delivered with a great storyteller’s knack for detail and the occasional touch of bone-dry humor.

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Olney is playing with Sergio Webb, an excellent guitarist and singer out of Nashville. Webb and Olney have collaborated before, so expect a great onstage rapport.

After the jump, a video of Olney performing the haunting “Jerusalem Tomorrow.”

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