At least in my mind, there are two ways to see a band such as John Howie Jr. & The Rosewood Bluff—in a Blues Brothers-style roadhouse, with the chicken wire and all, or on an outdoor stage. This show, thankfully for those who don't care for flying beer bottles, takes place at the latter. Howie's distinctive honky-tonk baritone and perpetually heartbroken lyricism make his music an essential North Carolina sound. With his band's rhythmic punch and pedal steel wail ringing out over Durham's tradition-happy American Tobacco Campus—and with this show put on by WUNC, one of North Carolina's largest public radio stations, to boot—Howie seems to have found a balance between modern, road-tested country-rock and respectful rootsiness. —Corbie Hill