Amy Rigby’s latest album, last year’s Hang In There (Tapete), includes “I’m Too Old to Be So Crazy,” a song about gearing up for another go-round where she recounts the reasons a musician in her mid-60s shouldn’t tour again. She sings from plenty of experience: Rigby has been in bands since the 1970s, when she played country music in New York City punk clubs with the Last Roundup. Since then, she’s been a member of girl group the Shams, a celebrated solo performer, and a close collaborator with fellow singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Wreckless Eric (who’s also her spouse). She knows the travails of subsistence-level music-making firsthand. But as Rigby reveals over and over again in her two memoirs, Girl to City and Girl to Country (published in 2019 and 2025, respectively), she’s never let caution get in the way of doing what she loves. That love manifests in multiple ways on Hang In There. On “O Anjali,” a catch-up call with a friend turns into a moment of shared heaviness; “Bangs” shares the joy of the discovery that a new hairdo can still change your life; and on “Dylan in Dubuque,” a nerdy nugget of trivia about one of Bob Dylan’s weirder concerts becomes Rigby’s lodestar for staying serene no matter what life throws at her. On record, Wreckless Eric’s history-steeped production can hook you as securely as Rigby’s lyrics. But when she plays solo, as she will at this show, she proves that all you need are sturdy songs and a true voice. Since the release of her first book, Rigby’s performances have been split between music and brief readings that are long on context and poignancy.
Amy Rigby Fri 10/17, 8 PM, Friendly Coffee Lounge, 6731 Roosevelt, Berwyn, $25.63, all ages
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