Pony Bradshaw @ Lulu’s Downstairs

North Georgia Rounder is strongly related to Pony Bradshaw’s last album (Calico Jim) but also stretches its legs into different territory. Place/region/localism/history has been a focus of Bradshaw’s over the past few years and he has continued that focus with North Georgia Rounder. But as the album title (Rounder) suggests, it’s also about life on the road: in taverns, in vans, sleeping on floors, meeting good folks, etc. Bradshaw notes how he longs for a well-ordered life and acknowledges the struggle to reconcile that instinct with spending half of it on the road. “But stories need to be told,” he said, “and somehow I’ve finagled my way into a position to tell a few.”