Also this issue:

Lefty Hooks
Lefty’s Deceiver picks up new tricks and throws down the rock on Cheats.
-John Vettese

The Folksman
The music world pays tribute to Philadelphia’s living legend Gene Shay.
-Mary Armstrong

Mallard Rising
Synth music avatar David Borden updates the Moog cookbook.
-A.D. Amorosi

Mary Bichner
-Patrick Rapa

Mastodon
-Paul Burress

Fruit Bats
-Sam Adams

Adrian Crowley
-Sam Adams

The Party of Helicopters
-John Vettese

May 8-14, 2003

musicpicks

Haley Bonar

For a girl who won¹t be old enough to drink legally for 50 more weeks, Haley Bonar sure has a lot of songs about whiskey. On The Size of Planets (Chairkickers), she drinks alone and dreams about a boy ("Billy,! "Drinking Again!), curses her booze-dulled town ("Am I Allowed!) and still reaches for her flask while she lies bleeding in the road ("Car Wreck!). "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy! sets the scene with Shannon Wright-like organ, but Bonar¹s spare guitar and clear, wistful voice are enough to hold you through to the ghostly "The Water.! Raised in South Dakota but based in Duluth, she¹s got a rural sensibility -- an authentic country pedigree without the twang. And like fellow Minnesota minimalist Alan Sparhawk (also on the bill at Doc Watson¹s on Thursday), Bonar¹s found a way to hush an ensemble and shrink the planet down to just one sound playing for just one pair of ears. (Though bassist Zak Sally has left Low, Sparhawk plans to keep the band going after this solo tour.) Catch Bonar now, before all that whiskey catches up with her.

Thu., May 8, 10 p.m., $8, with Alan Sparhawk, If Thousands and Bitter, Bitter Weeks, Doc Watson’s, 216 S. 11th St., 800-594-8499.

—M.J. Fine