The opening track of the Band of Heathens’ One Foot in the Ether is classic electric alt-country, but a listener unfamiliar with the Texas quintet would be wise to withhold judgment or expectations. “L.A. County Blues” casually segues into soft harmonies recalling the 1970s in “Say,” and then “Shine a Light” digs heavily into soulful, organ-heavy gospel.

That diversity of styles befits a group with three primary songwriters who each play multiple instruments, but it also reflects an understanding of the essential similarities shared by different branches of roots music.

“I’ve never seen blues music or soul music being very far away from country music or bluegrass,” singer/songwriter Ed Jurdi said in a recent phone interview promoting the Band of Heathens’ November 4 performance at the Redstone Room. “The approach is slightly different in terms of who’s singing the song and what they sound like.”

Songwriters Jurdi, Gordy Quist, and Colin Brooks – with bassist Seth Whitney and drummer John Chipman – are celebrating the fifth anniversary of their band this month, yet rather than settling on a sound, Band of Heathens has embraced a stylistic sloppiness.

Images by photographer Chris Jones from Saturday's Jason Aldean concert at the i wireless Center, with openers Thompson Square and Uncle Kracker. Click on any photo for a larger version.

Jason Aldean:

Images by photographer Chris Jones from Thursday's Papa Roach concert at the i wireless Center, with openers Skillet and Trapt. Click on any photo for a larger version.

Papa Roach:

(Note: This show was canceled on October 14 and will be rescheduled.)

When Rock Island native Lissie Maurus performed in the Quad Cities in November, she had just released the EP Why You Runnin’, and it seemed to promise that more aching folk would follow.

Three of the EP’s five songs (“Little Lovin’,” “Everywhere I Go,” and “Oh Mississippi”) made the cut on the full-length Catching a Tiger, but only the first of those – with its escalating, building soul – foreshadowed her album’s stunning pop path.

There’s no doubt that Lissie is a strong singer, with a throaty voice full of color and conviction and frayed around the edges. But good folk music requires sterling wordplay, and I worried that Maurus might not yet have the songwriting chops to carry a record of lightly adorned songs, even with her considerable pipes.

So Catching a Tiger – released in August – is a major and welcome surprise. A handful of producers and co-writers developed tracks around Maurus’ voice, and she takes flight within the dynamic tunes. I heard Cat Power and Neko Case in the spare arrangement of her EP, but Catching a Tiger finds her in the smartly fleshed-out company of Tori Amos and Fiona Apple; the aural richness augments and supports fundamentally strong material.