BOB SCHNEIDER
9 p.m. Juanita’s. $15.
If you’ve got a yen for contemporary funky/bluesy/rootsy pop singer/songwriters such as Ben Harper, Josh Ritter, Jack Johnson and the like and you have never listened to Austin, Texas, mainstay Bob Schneider, you’ll wanna go ahead and get yourself down to Juanita’s Thursday. Schneider’s latest long-player, “Burden of Proof,” is a bit more somber than some of its predecessors. It’s a mostly unhurried, largely acoustic affair, with a string quartet filling out much of the space with a yearning sort of vibe. It sounds like he’s been digging on some Leonard Cohen lately, especially on the opener “Digging for Icicles.” Schneiderphiles will find much of the subject matter familiar, with themes of heartbreak, loss, sadness, the ephemerality of existence and redemption in the face of these bummers. But there’s not much in the way of the humor that’s come through in Schneider’s work before — there’s nothing like the hilarious “Hangin’ out with the Horny Girls” or “Batman,” both featured on his “Live at the Paramount Theatre (Volume 2)” album. He’ll perform solo Thursday, with local roots-rocker extraordinaire Jeff Coleman opening.