Edward David Anderson offers up refreshingly honest songwriting

When I start digging into Riverbend’s schedule every year to sample the music of the dozens of performers slated to play, I’ve got my fingers crossed I’ll find someone like Edward David Anderson.

Anderson, whose name might sound like a Civil War quartermaster or an author of the American Romantic period, is a singer/ songwriter whose music exudes homespun honesty.

A former rocker, Anderson shifts gears with his latest release, 2015’s “Lower Alabama: The Loxley Sessions,” offering a more rootsy sound that doesn’t bother with layers of undue studio polish. Every element — from the pedal steel and fiddles to the banjo rolls and the beard-filtered vocals — sits bare-butt on the wood. Whether it’s presented through the lens of old-time, blues, Southern rock or oldschool country, his music is simple without sounding poorly formed.

Even in this age of independent artists thumbing their noses and blowing raspberries at the soulless machinery of the corporate recording industry, insincerity in music is as tragic as it is rampant. Anderson doesn’t have that problem.

He’s a transplant to the South — Illinoisan by birth, Lower Alabamian by choice — but his music doesn’t give the impression that he’s trying to don a costume or pull the wool over. The music is presented without inflation or embellishment, which is incredibly refreshing. When Anderson takes the Unum Stage tonight, I plan to be there to breathe deep. You should, too.

Edward David Anderson