If you squint your eyes during a set from The Silks or Smith & Weeden, you'd be forgiven if you felt like you were in a Southern-fried juke joint well south of the Mason-Dixon. But despite its geography, Providence has a penchant for producing bands that speak to the world-weary, hard-drinking everyman storytelling that's at the heart of every good country song.

Come this Saturday at Fete, some of the local scene's finest purveyors will share the stage in a night that will bring out the good ole boy - or gal - in us all.

Both Smith & Weeden and The Silks are fresh off tours down South and are converging in Providence for a show S&W's Ollie Williams is already calling "one of the best shows of the year."

Williams and his Smith & Weeden bandmates have reason to be excited. Armed with a killer new record, the group recently played an official showcase at the Americana Music Festival and built a small Southern tour around the event. 

"The new stuff is a little more rock and roll," Williams said from a rare quiet moment on the road. "The songs were written together as a band, for the most part. A little louder, and a little edgier."

Smith & Weeden open up for The Silks, a group that seems primed to pop out of Providence. Led by Tyler-James Kelly, The Silks churn out swampy, Skynard-esque grooves. The group is coming off a large tour of their own, which not only included a pair of AMA showcases but also an acoustic set at the historic RCA/Victor Studios in Nashville.

All told, it will make for one heck of a homecoming. Or as Williams puts it, "It's going to be a loud, sweaty party."

Giddy up.

The Silks, Smith & Weeden, Township
Saturday September 29 | 8 PM |  Tickets