John K Samson’s recent solo album Provincial is largely quieter and more stripped-down than his main gig with the Weakerthans, heavy on the acoustic folk and balladry, but his smart lyricism and simply affecting songwriting shine even at their most unadorned. His concerns are, as ever, both nerdy (“When I Write My Master’s Thesis”) and Canadian (hockey trivia), but his trick is to find the emotional core of these things and expand them into everyman anthems. “When I Write My Master’s Thesis,” especially, is a killer: a hopeless wish that everything will change set to Provincial’s most amped-up power pop. With Shotgun Jimmie. ERIC GRANDY

Sun., April 1, 8 p.m., 2012