He’s been touted by the likes of NPR. He’s performed Irish music at folk festivals in the Blueridge Mountains. He’s written an album based on a fortune-telling chicken he once saw in Alabama. He’s played Jesus in the indie comedy Evolution: The Musical! Unquestionably, Sean Hayes is a musician with a wide range of backgrounds to drawn from – born in New York City, he was raised in North Carolina and made San Francisco his permanent home after falling in with the Bay Area’s music community. Hayes’ songs reflect a similar freewheeling spirit – sometimes it bounces, sometimes it slows down and gets political. All of it manages to carry a sense of intimacy, particularly through Hayes’ grainy, penetrating vocals, and his finger-picking skills, on guitar, mandolin or banjo, are often astonishing. It’s all soulful, likeable music, and Hayes seems to be at his best when his songwriting is more confessional, as in 2007’s Flowering Spade, which finds him singing, “I’ll gather your honey/ I’ll plant your seed/ I’ll be your harvest/ Leave you my sting.” A charming guy is appealing no matter what state you’re in. With Cataldo and honey.moon.tree.

Sat., Aug. 8, 9:30 p.m., 2009