Eight Gigs: Whitey Morgan and the 78's

Whitey Morgan's papa was a reverse carpetbagger, leaving the South for Detroit, but kept his country culture alive in his son. Morgan's beefy bellow recalls Waylon Jennings' blustery baritone, traversing the dusty stretch through tears-in-the-beer honky-tonk to job-quitting country-rock odes, pedal-steel country ballads echoing George Jones to rabble-rousing beer-anthems worthy of David Allen Coe. Morgan's group built a fanbase from the ground up—to the extent that it pledged $50,000 on Kickstarter in May to record a still-forthcoming third album, the follow-up to 2010's self-titled album on Bloodshot Records. 2708 J Street, www.whiteymorgan.com.