Sometimes when looking at upcoming concerts, you can make snap judgements about what you’re likely to experience. There’s some easy visual cues for a variety of genres, from death metal to country. A quick glance at the Dylan LeBlanc show at St. Paul’s Turf Club had cowboy hats and boots, so you would be forgiven for assuming it was going to be an evening Americana or full out country. Instead, it was going to be a night of excellent Southern rock.

Carlyle Griffin began the night, and the Nashville-based singer and songwriter plays in the Americana genre, but with a number of other, broader influences. She is fairly new to the scene, and has an EP, Letters from Buckingham Palace. Appearing solo with acoustic guitar (and a pretty excellent pair of tinted glasses), Griffin showed off some vocal pipes straight off. That song was Americana infused with a lot of blues, and the more plucked style of guitar on the second number had more similarities to artists like Lake Street Dive than Waxahatchee. Noting this was her first venture in Saint Paul, she also told the crowd she had finished recording her debut full length album, due out hopefully at the end of the year. Memories, Money, and Mistakes continued the nearly soul singer vibe, showing off a good dynamic range. A song for her late grandfather (“my first true supporter”) also let us know that her mom was in the audience (it was her last stop on the road) and Cigarette Drive was a touching ode. A quieter mood (if not actual volume) had the repeated chorus of “it’s true, youth is wasted on the young” and rang true in Griffin’s darker vocal hues. She finished up her set and it seemed pretty clear that Carlyle Griffin had made a few new fans and continued to have a very proud mom.

Headliner Dylan LeBlanc brought his alt country sound to bring us home. He’s got five albums, including 2023’s moody rocker Coyote. The band largely came to stage in full country regalia: boots, cowboy hats, the embroidered shirts, a lot of facial hair (except our drummer, in full trucker gear and baseball cap). And the music? Very much not country, but rather a rich southern rock & roll that absolutely leaned into fantastic, dark guitar work and a charming, higher, yet smoky, vocal. The quartet (vocals/guitar, guitar, bass, and drums) could easily be playing on The Current or Radio K, and the contrast of visual look to musical sound was nearly disconcerting. But, if you let yourself lean into the sound, you were easily rewarded with an excellent, fairly laid back rock. We had some nearly 70’s rock guitar interlude (like Rush level dual guitars) and any Americana expectations had been completely shattered at this point. LeBlanc’s delta intoned, tenor pitch was so right on for Look How Far We’ve Come, with its dark lyrics and finally a song that could be pitched as Americana, but even here, that closing musical interlude was reminiscent of Tom Petty. The darker undertones had LeBlanc creating a spell that the audience were happily under. That front line of guitar and bass kept things both serious and loose, if that makes any sense at all. A crushing electric guitar solo close to a latter set song was pure rock & roll, and the band continued to crash out some high paced bangers. We got a slow guitar intro that heralded a fun one, and the title track Coyote came through as a brilliant piece of southern rock. They closed out the main set as hard core as you might hope, and back for the encore, Dylan LeBlanc finished on a perfect 70’s southern rock opus and a reminder of the old koan that you really can’t judge a book by it’s cover.