HILLBILLY STOMP

That the touring lineup of Lynyrd Skynyrd is a desiccated version of the original doesn’t much matter—Skynyrd is the rare band whose songs are far bigger than those who play them. As a bout of collective memory, it will undoubtedly connect, but Kid Rock will provide the link to the present Skynyrd that fans didn’t know they wanted. It makes twisted sense that the keeper of that band’s flame would be a DJ turned rapper from one of the many wrong sides of the Detroit area, the child of postwar migration patterns northward. In the years since his attempts at proper rapping, he’s become a fixture in Nashville, and one of the few upholding the ragged tradition of Southern rock, tirelessly playing to the faithful, as he will tonight, and proving that the sound is bigger than the South, or even rock.
Thu., May 15, 8 p.m., 2008