With many young roots music players, it seems their definition of the genre is limited to dusty minor-key melancholia. That’s why an artist like local Jeff Fielder is refreshing. As with any good roots tune, there is a melancholy thread weaved throughout all of his material. But Fielder lets the songs breath by giving them a bluesy-pop tilt. When I hear him, I think of less-macho Billy Joe Shaver; he’s a singer-songwriter so skilled that he knows how to cry in his beer but not take it too seriously. He’s known around town (or on Ballard Ave, at least) as a member of Sera Cahoone’s and Kristen Ward’s bands. While that’s good for them, it’s also a shame that it’s overshadowed his solo career. He put out a record of his own in 2006 called Lost Disguise that’s full of the mature and accomplished roots-blues so rare in our local scene. With Lost Dogma. BRIAN J. BARR

Sun., Jan. 13, 4 p.m., 2008