Singer-songwriter Martin Sexton equates his songs to kernels of hope. That probably explains why he calls his seventh album Seeds. The Boston-based troubadour tosses a lot of different sounds into his music — pop, rock, alt-country, gospel, even a little soul. Opener Ryan Montbleau treks similar ground on his band’s latest CD, One Fine Color. But where Sexton’s songs leave little room for extemporization, Montbleau’s tunes take a more open-ended approach, which more often than not leads him to jam-band terrain.
Thu., Sept. 20, 8 p.m.

This article appears in Sep 19-25, 2007.