Bill Goldstein

Twenty-five years ago, an unsigned band out of Athens, Georgia, named Drive-By Truckers recorded the equivalent of a tree falling in the forest with no one there to hear it. A very big tree. It was a thematic, double-album colossus loosely about, as one of its signature songs put it, “the duality of the Southern thing,” and it was accomplished exclusively between the hours of 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. due to the sweltering conditions in their makeshift studio in a second-floor uniform shop.

Who knew there were so many cowboys around coastal Maine? In truth, I’d had an idea. Saturday night’s State Theater appearance by Charley Crockett, one of the hottest – and most unique – artists in country music, had been sold out many months in advance. I’d secured tickets when they went on sale back in January, and my wife and I then proceeded with plans to host a Portland early-summer weekend built around the show for four of our closest friends, arriving in from Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Sometimes things just work out. Abetted by the peculiar, positive vibes of Portland, they seem to work out more often. A recent long-awaited chance to see drummer extraordinaire Louis Cole at sold-out Portland House of Music provided both the incredible musician and the auspicious spirit of the city a chance to strut.