Seth Walker and Buxton at Mud Water – The best $8 you will spend this weekend

This Saturday night at Mud & Water will be a great one for lovers of progressive Southern music, featuring two very different but stellar acts who are carrying the diverse musical heritage of the Gulf states into the future.

Seth Walker is a guitarist and songwriter who blends Texas blues, honky tonk and folk with heavy doses of New Orleans jazz and soul. My first experience with Walker was last year when he visited town with The Wood Brothers as an opening act and later sat in with the band for a number of songs. Even among the world-class musicianship of the band he was joining, Walker’s talent stood out (see video below). He has a disarmingly smooth and powerful voice that enables him to jump from genre to genre without hesitation, and is perhaps an even more versatile and talented guitar player. He might lay down a lazy, funky country blues number before launching into an Ella Fitzgerald cover with a dizzying flurry of mathematical jazz runs.

Also on the Saturday bill is Buxton, a young five-piece band from Houston. You could describe the band as prog-alt-country folk rock, but, for simplicity’s sake, we could call them indie-rock. (I must admit, I still have absolutely no idea what that term means.) I stumbled upon Buxton when they played alongside The Donkeys, a favorite band of mine, at the Howlin’ Wolf Den in New Orleans last year. They were beyond impressive, turning catchy folk ditties into something much bigger and meaner, and expanding the boundaries of traditional folk and country song structures to include synthesizers, reverb-soaked mandolin, otherworldly pedal steel, and hauntingly beautiful three-part harmonies. The band has since released Nothing Here Seems Strange, its debut album on New West Records. On the album, the band is coming into its own and harnessing the power and uniqueness of their sound. I’m incredulous that this album hasn’t yet rocketed the band to indie stardom, considering the fact that it is flat out better than almost all of the most hyped records this year. The album is available streaming here. Check out the video for “Riverbed” below.

Don’t miss this show, which is sure to be overwhelmingly awesome in a small venue. Cover is only $8. I would gladly pay five times that to see either of these acts individually.

Seth Walker and Buxton at Mud and Water, 9 p.m., Saturday, June 29.