Burger with Relish

Let’s hear it for Portland, Ore.-based Michael Dean Damron and his rootsy rock band Thee Loyal Bastards, who always stop by Salt Lake City on national tours and always stop by the Heavy Metal Shop for an in-store performance the afternoon before their shows. (See an earlier Heavy Metal Shop performance above.)

Damron and Thee Loyal Bastards will stop by the Heavy Metal Shop (63 Exchange Place, Salt Lake City) at 6 p.m. Friday — presumably in their customary Heavy Metal Shop T-shirts — before their concert at Burt's Tiki Lounge.

Damron just released his third full-length album, “Father’s Day,” in which the gritty singer-songwriter recalls — but never imitates — the whiskey-soaked Americana and alt-country of his heroes Steve Earle, Alejandro Escovedo, Townes Van Zandt and Waylon Jennings. Damron is just as gravelly-voiced as Tom Waits, and his latest album is a treatise on emotional pain that is never short of being shockingly, and enthrallingly, honest.

Let’s hear Michael Dean Damron and Thee Loyal Bastards.

When • Friday at 8 p.m.
Where • Burt’s Tiki Lounge, 826 S. State St., Salt Lake City
Tickets • $10 at SmithsTix