In a different lifetime, Auguste Arthur Bondy (under the name Scott Bondy) fronted Alabama’s hard-rockin’ Verbena, and of all the ’90s Nirvana-bees, they might have been the best. Dave Grohl, who produced Verbena’s 1999 album Into the Pink, once told CMJ magazine: “Dude, that guy is so fuckin’ Kurt Cobain it’s not even funny.” Fortunately, Bondy didn’t pull the plug on his life in the early ’00s when Verbena disintegrated; instead, he unplugged the amps, changed his handle to A.A. Bondy, and completely reinvented himself as a brooding, acoustic-guitar-wielding indie-folk troubadour obsessed with God and the devil and Bob Dylan and neck-harmonicas. There’s no shortage of those kinds of singer-songwriters in the world, but Bondy’s go at it – as heard on his stark solo debut, American Hearts – comes off natural, intimate, affecting, and sincere. From the sound of things, he’s finally settled into his true self.

Sat., Feb. 28, 9:30 p.m., 2009