More than two decades ago, Kenny Roby made his move to the big city of Raleigh to make music with his rock band, The Lubricators. But The Lubricators broke up, as did Six String Drag, the alt-country flagship that, for a moment, seemed to be Roby's convoy to commercial success. Whether intentional or not, those collapsing opportunities turned Roby into a musical amoeba, capable of frequent shifts in shape. After turns as a bandleader both raucous and refined (and both, simultaneously), Roby lands some of his best turns to date on the forthcoming Memories & Birds, which positions him as the pensive poet sharing sonic space with The National, Bon Iver and Damien Jurado. JPHONO1 opens. —Grayson Currin