Shurman

Splitting the difference between the Black Crowes and Counting Crows, Shurman sneaks crackling Southern-rock riffs into jangly alt-country tunes. The radio-friendly group name-checks Tom Petty in its lyrics and thanks Hootie and the Blowfish in its liner notes, but the dozens-deep pile of domestic beer cans in the group's practice-space photo pegs its most prominent influence. The songs on Shurman's debut disc, Jubilee, feel like the products of some drunken all-night jam, with a sloppiness that tempers the band's melodic sheen. The album starts steady, swells to bar-band bombast, then gets desperate at last call with the love-starved pleas of "2 a.m." The Kansas City date is one of Shurman's last stops before hopping aboard Ted Nugent's tour, so expect the group to load up on local liquor and go gonzo.