The Music Buzz

• Local vocalist Kristin Turo will be bringing country and pop faves from the 1970s to 1990s along with originals from her self-released album The Trigger to McNeilly’s Pub, 2802 James St., on Saturday, Oct. 1, 8 p.m.. The 22-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist says she brings her introverted tunes to life with lyrics that spring directly from personal experience: “You get the most real lyrics that way. After I’m done writing {the song}, I’m not dwelling on the feeling anymore, but it’s on the paper, so I remember it and people who have felt the same relate. That’s why I write: When you look at people’s faces and you can tell that they feel the same way.”

Turo’s candy-coated voice sweetly reaches out to her audiences, which is precisely the goal she’s going for. “A lot of musicians want to be different,” she says. “I embrace how people are all the same. We can all share the same feelings.”

Turo also runs her own businesses, Tall Tower Publishing and the label 10 Records, allowing herself full control and room for experimentation on her original projects. On The Trigger, available on iTunes and Amazon.com, Turo wrote, played and produced everything on the album and is planning a more acoustic rock album. Admission is free; for McNeilly’s information, call 432-9846.

• If you’re jonesin’ for some blues, the fix has arrived in Homer: Blues singer, songwriter and harmonica player John Nemeth visits the Center of the Arts, 72 S. Main St., on Saturday, Oct. 1, 8 p.m. Following in the blues tradition of B.B. King, Ray Charles and Junior Parker, Nemeth delivers energetic and soulful performances, showing off his slick voice and killer harp skills. His retro-feel songs combine swinging horns, catchy guitar riffs and grooving bass lines to create the kind of music that instantly speaks to feet, hips and hands.

The Boise, Idaho, native has drawn praise from the Cascade Blues Association, who selected him as crowd favorite at the Portland Waterfront Blues Festival in 2002, and the Washington Blues Society, who labeled him as the show-stealer at the Winthrop Rhythm and Blues Festival in 2003.

A social hour begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and $10 for students 18 and over with a valid ID. Children under 18 are free. Visit www. center4art.org or call (607) 749-4900.

• The swinging Austin, Texas-based trio Hot Club of Cowtown will bring the beat to Cazenovia College’s Catherine Cummings Theatre, 16 Lincklaen St., Cazenovia, on Sunday, Oct. 2, 8 p.m. Since their debut in 1998, the Cowtown crew--guitarist Whit Smith, fiddlervocalist Elana James and bassist Jake Erwin--have opened for Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson and were the first American band to tour Azerbaijan, a country between Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Opening the night will be local guitar master Loren Barrigar, who has recently completed a tour and CD with duet partner Mark Mazengarb from New Zealand. Tickets are $25 for the gui tar-pickin’, fiddlin’, swingin’ show, available at www.brownpaper tickets.com. For more information, call 655-STAR.

• The Redhouse Regulars Series kicks off with the fifth appearance of vocalistdrummer Karen Savoca and guitarist Pete Heitzman at The Redhouse, 201 S. West. St., with a show on Saturday, Oct. 1, 8 p.m. Redhouse administrative director Mike Intaglietta understands the group’s popularity after witnessing their previous sellout shows: “It’s a really intimate experience between the audience and the performers. People were standing in the doorway asking for exceptions so they could be let in. They asked to listen upstairs from the gallery, anything. It’s a really powerful show. People are definitely affected by it. They don’t feel like they’re just watching. They feel like they’re a part of it.”

The Regulars Series will feature artists monthly and is sponsored by the nearby Blue Tusk brew pub and restaurant at 165 Walton St. “We try to focus on performers with some connection or roots to Syracuse and have extended recently to the Adirondacks as well,” Intaglietta says. The Redhouse and the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts, located in Blue Mountain Lake, are working together to trade artists, such as the ’Dacks-based Fat River Kings, who will visit the Redhouse on Nov. 12. The Dean Brothers, who sold out the Redhouse twice within the last year, will return on Dec. 17.

Tickets for the Savoca-Heitzman showcase are $15. For more information, visit www.theredhouse.org or call 425-0405.

—Compiled by Jessica Novak