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Music: McKenna headed for gold

In the Herald, Dan Gewertz reports that several sources say Stoughton singer-songwriter Lori McKenna is getting a big break: As many as four of her tunes will be featured on the new album by country superstar Faith Hill. The album is even tentatively named for one of them, "Fireflies." McKenna has been visiting  Nashville for songwriting sessions on a new publishing contract, and apparently it's about to pay off big for the mother of five.

The morning papers

The Globe's Kathleen Wereszynski has an interesting feature on a couple of Russian artists who have taken a former Masonic Lodge in Davis Square as their home and turned it into "a temple of art." I'm going out to get hard copy in hopes of pictures. ... Steve Morse says Carlos Santana was smokin' at the Tweeter Center last night, especially when joined by openers Los Lonely Boys. ... Richard Dyer says the Boston Early Music Festival has finally achieved a long-held goal of recording one of its opera productions. The BEMF's recording of Johann Georg Conradi's ''Ariadne" comes out next month, but is on sale at BEMF events now.

The Herald's Terry Byrne reports that Matt Damon is returning to Cambridge next Saturday for ``Breaking New Ground, An Event to Benefit Central Square Theatre and to Honor Matt Damon" at the Hotel at MIT. The event is a benefit for the campaign to build a 175-seat theatre for the Nora Theatre Company and the Underground Railway Theatre. Jimmy Tingle hosts the $1,500-a-seat event. Call 617-694-3268.

The Herald's Bob Young writes about a band with "a feverish mix of Turkish music and electronica" called Oojami, which makes its local debut Sunday night at the Regent Theatre in Arlington. The North London group's "belly-dancing-gone-clubbing" style is being promoted by onetime Police manager and Sting pal Miles Copeland.  Sounds like a night on the town, no? Tix, $20 at www.regenttheatre.com. Headline of the day award for "Turkey Club."

Also in the Herald, Bill Brotherton reports a fine time was had by all, especially some Father's Day dad-and-son pairs, at the Robert Plant show last night at the Pavilion. He notes that opening act The Soundtrack of Our Life's "lead singer Ebbot Lundberg, wearing a Beatles mop-top haircut and a tunic that was way too snug at the midriff, looked like one of Robin Hood's merry men. The one who drinks lots of beer and eats at McDonald's all the time." 

The Berkshire Eagle's Allison Tracy has a long, chatty, but knowledgable interview with Jacob's Pillow Director Ella Baff about the coming season.

Arts: Trust may take over historic boat shop

A bright spot in a tough year for cultural institutions along the Merrimack River: The Newburyport Daily News reports that a private trust wants to take over the historic Lowell's Boat Shop in Amesbury, removing the financial burden from the struggling Newburyport Maritime Society. The private Lowell's Boat Shop Trust has already been providing quiet financial support to the facility, while the Maritime Society has had to lay off staff to keep Lowell's and the Custom House Museum of Newburyport operating. Saturday brings the Mighty Merrimack Rowing Race from Lowell's to the Custom House.

Music: All hail the Dropkick Murphys

The most heartening thing about the Dropkick Murphys listening party at Game On last week was how out-of-place they and their posse looked in the glossy, plasma-screen-equipped downstairs function room of the Fenway Park venue. It's a place for boldface names like Tom Brady and Nancy Kerrigan to rub elbows with the Red Sox and each other. The heavily tattooed, shamrock-Sox-gear-wearing Dropkicks crew looked at best like the guys who'd be rolling the kegs in from the truck. And they seemed to know it, standing around warily in packs, crowding the bar for Guinness and Buds. I hope someone was watching over the two guys down the bar from me who started doing shots of Jaegermeister at 5 p.m. on that 90-plus-degree day.

Of course, the key fact about the Dropkicks is that, unless you know their faces, the band members are indistinguishable from their huge cohort of local fans. HBO's never going to make an "Entourage" about these guys. But their new album, "Warrior's Code," out Tuesday on Hellcat Records, and a spot on the Warped tour beginning this weekend threaten to make their mugs a little better known.

Last year's hit Red Sox fight song, "Tessie," is tagged on at the end of "Warrior's Code," but this is another strong original effort from the band, celebrating as always the virtues of perseverance and community, the working class struggle, and, most interestingly, the toll wars take on the men who fight them.

When "Tessie" won best local single in the recent Phoenix poll, the Dropkicks took some grief for not being more political; my take is here. But the real answer comes on "Warrior's Code." "Last Letter Home" is a compelling exchange between a soldier in Iraq and his family here -- more compelling when you know that it includes actual lines from a Weymouth soldier who died over there, a Dropkicks fan who the band serenaded at his wake. It brings home the cost of war without being a screed. And nobody's going to mistake the frantic punk rant "Citizen CIA" for a pro-Bush tune.

With its sweet pipes and shouted choruses, lovely melodies and thrashing guitars, the disc is pretty much classic Dropkicks, but "Sunshine Highway" and "The Burden" are as close to radio-friendly as the band has ever been. And "Wicked Sensitive Crew," which addresses the, um, complexities of being a working class punk and how the band is often mistaken for thugs, is just freakin' hilarious.

All of this and more is addressed nicely in Mike Miliard's interview with the band in this week's Cellars By Starlight column in the Phoenix. And he also talks to their pals in the Unseen, who have a new disc as well and are joining them on the Warped tour.

The morning papers

In the Globe, Joan Anderman has a bafflingly prominent feature on a wedding band, Flipside, that's popular with boldface couples like the Hasselbecks and the Welches. Oh, wait, maybe it's not so baffling. ... Steve Morse offers a roundup of good new CDs by Boston club bands. ... Louise Kennedy talks to Gideon Lester about his adaptation of Kafka's "Amerika" for the ART, which is getting a ton of ink this week. ... Richard Dyer writes that Karina Gauvin sang up a storm at the Boston Early Music Festival on Wednesday.

In the Herald, the Inside Track has all the excitement, such as it is, from the Nantucket Film Festival cum celebrity schmoozerama. ... Terry Byrne explains the innovative Will Act for Food troupe bringing its charity-minded act to the Hub ... and also talks to Andre de Shields, who'll be playing Louis Armstrong at the Cape Playhouse beginning next week. ... And the new Across the Pond feature tells us (very briefly) that Boston's The Explosion and Dresden Dolls both scored at a brit rock fest.

The Patriot Ledger's Jody Feinberg interviews comedian Dane Cook, who plays the Music Circus on Sunday.  ... In the Worcester Telegram, Scott McLennan talks to Lori McKenna, who plays the Bull Run in Shirley tonight. ... and Richard Duckett reports on the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra's summer plans.

In the redesigned Phoenix, which I should have gotten to yesterday, Christopher Millis writes about the Gee's Bend Quilts exhibit at the MFA. ... Nick Sylvester mulls the fate of dance music in Boston. ... Sally Cragin tells us about "Frogz" hopping toward Cambridge.

Dance: Blue states, red states, 'Unsettled States'

"Unsettled States: Dance Under Democracy" is the title of a charged dance concert set for Friday and Saturday nights at Green Street Studios in Central Square, Cambridge, and produced by Josie Bray and Dawn Davis Loring of Mosaic Dance Body. It's a small-d democratically produced and collectively choreographed effort described as "a buffet of uneasy questions and ticklish absurdity... a mixture of gravitas and snark." What can Republicans and Democrats agree on? What do you fear most? Somehow they're promising to dance about all that, as well as health care and oppression. There's also a piece called "5 Stages of Democratic Grief." Sounds like a full evening.The other performers are Jennifer Lawson, Lauren Lenihan and Anna Zamarripa. Festivities kick off each night at 8 at 185 Green Street; tickets are $15, $12 for student and seniors. Call 617-864-3191.

Music: Cortese takes baton at NESE

Federico Cortese will take over as conductor of the New England String Ensemble for the 2005-6 season, following Susan Davenny Wyner, who held the post for six seasons. Cortese was associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra 1998-2002, and has been music director of the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras since 1999. Executive Director Peter Stickel says he is "a clear and dynamic conductor, and he always has an interesting point of view on the music." Cortese has held assistant or associate positions at the Spoleto Festival, in Rome and at the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He has residences in Rome and Boston - and a law degree in Italy.

NESE concerts are held at the Rogers Center at Merrimack College in North Andover and at Jordan Hall. Expect program details and ticket info next week at www.newenglandstringensemble.org.

Music: Pixies go acoustic at Newport

In the reverse of Bob Dylan's historic plug-in back in '65, the Pixies will play an all-acoustic set at the Newport Folk Festival on Aug. 6. "“I hope that Pete Seeger doesn’t go after the power supply with an axe, for us going acoustic,” Frank Black says in this morning's press release. It's not an entirely new move for the band, though. In his Herald review of Thursday's Pixies show at Agganis Arena, Chris Blagg reports, "A mini-acoustic portion of the set proved to be the night's highlight, including the bopping surf rock of 'Here Comes Your Man.' "

TV: Leary's terrific 'Rescue Me' returns

Make sure you're in front of a TV Tuesday night at 10 for the second season premiere of Denis Leary's "Rescue Me" on FX. It's not "The Sopranos," but it's the equal of anything else on TV, including FX's "The Shield" and "Nip/Tuck." It's hilarious and wrenching and dark, the only TV series to make use of 9/11 without cheapening it.

Worcester native Leary plays Tommy Gavin, a gutty New York City jake who lost his beloved cousin, also a firefighter, on 9/11. Traumatized Tommy's bad behavior has cost him wife, children and friends. He's having an affair with his cousin's widow, who's now carrying his baby. But sometimes it seems the love of Tommy's life is the bottle.

In the season premiere, his misdeeds have gotten him exiled to a firehouse on Staten Island, where his fellow jakes get excited over a little car fire and maintain a swear jar, for fuck's sake. Tommy's going crazy with boredom. He's stalking his old firehouse and trying to track down his runaway ex. The 30-second phone calls from his kids are tearing him up. He's back on the booze. And he keeps returning to Ground Zero, where he sits in his truck and glares at the sleazebags selling 9/11 souvenir cookies and light-up Twin Towers to the tourists. Something's gotta give.

Best known as the bullying comic in assorted commercials, Leary has deepened his art and become a real actor - and a writer. He and his creative partner Peter Tolan have crafted something special here, and they trust the viewer to pick up the meaning in gestures and looks and throwaway lines.

In real life, Leary lost a firefighter cousin in the Worcester Cold Storage Fire, and he's deeply involved with charity efforts on behalf of first responders here and in New York. Even more than with his and Tolan's short-lived ABC cop series "The Job," he seems deeply connected to this material.

The show's weak spot may be the uneven quality of the supporting performances; some of the other guys are a little too convincing playing dumb. But Dean Winters and Lee Tergesen, among others, turn in fine work. And while Boston's Lenny Clarke doesn't appear in Tuesday's episode, it appears he'll be back with his usual robustly comic performance as Uncle Teddy. Maybe the funniest 25 minutes I've seen on TV recently came when the Leary-Clarke team took over the Red Sox TV broadcast booth during a game, but I'd still trade that for any episode of "Rescue Me."

Just watch. I'll try to remind you on Tuesday.

Nields explores outsider girlhood

Northampton musician Nerissa Nields has written a new young-adult novel with characters who are outsiders in pressure-packed teen society and who find themselves through music, Daniel Gewertz reports in the Herald. "``I was dorky until I was 13, and then I started playing guitar, and suddenly everybody loved me,'' the co-founder of '90s folkers the Nields says. Her book "Plastic Angel" (Orchard/Scholastic, $17.95) is about kids who have a hard time fitting in: "A part of me has never left that time in my life," Nields said. Last year Nields and her sister Katryna released "This Town Is Wrong," a CD that functions as a sort of soundtrack to the book. (A two-song disc comes with the volume.) Friday night at Passim, the duo will perform, connecting the disc and the book.  And Gewertz reports Nields already has an adult novel in the can, about a Massachusetts family rock band. (Tix are $15, $12 for passim members, and available here.)