Most pop singers from the ’60s and ’70s who are fortunate enough to still be touring resort to what I call vocal cheats. That’s when they get to a point in an old hit that has a particularly high note they can’t hit — a note that especially resonates with the baby-boomer audience — so they either drop it an octave or turn it over to the background singers.

There’s nothing really shameful about these vocal cheats — it would be worse, for instance, if Daryl Hall tried to hit that big release note in “She’s Gone” and failed miserably. Or if Roger Daltrey attempted to render the big scream in “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and sounded like a frog.

I tell you all this because I saw Boz Scaggs last night at Ruth Eckerd Hall and he didn’t resort to any vocal cheats. He’s 65 years old. Very impressive. When, on “Lido Shuffle,” it came time for the “Lido, whoa, whoa” part, he was right on it — with the backup singers helping, yes, but not drowning him out and thus protecting him. Scaggs came up a little short or a little thin on some of the high notes, but he went for them all.

It wasn’t just the lack of vocal cheats that made Scaggs’ 75-minute set in front of a near-sold-out crowd a success. His voice still has that full, creamy texture of the old days, and his delivery and phrasing brimmed with nuance. (more photos below; all are by Tracy May)

Scaggs’ most recent albums have been made up of standards from the Great American Songbook. He set that material aside at REH, opting instead for a compendium of hits from the latter half of the 1970s and early ’80s (”Jojo,” “Lowdown,” “Georgia,” “Look What You’ve Done to Me” and others) as well as blues and R&B tunes from his early, early career. His encore was an extended version of the slow blues “Loan me a Dime” from his 1969 self-titled album.

Scaggs, who played guitar as well, was backed by five instrumentalists and a dynamic background singer who, I think, went by Miss Monet. She was as torrid as Scaggs was ultra-cool, and provided the ideal vocal foil. Miss Monet took center stage for a roof-raising version of the Aretha Franklin vehicle “Until You Come Back To Me.” Her performance drew a big smile from the perpetually laid-back Scaggs.

The band’s dynamics were impeccable, dialed back at times in order to make room for Scaggs’ supple pipes to take the spotlight, allowing him to contour the lyrics in fresh ways.

Besides the fact that he omitted “Breakdown Dead Ahead” and declined to sing any standards, I was thoroughly pleased with Scaggs’ set. A longtime fan, it was my first occasion to see him in concert.

Just for the record, Michael McDonald played the second set of the double bill. I’m not a fan, so only caught a few tunes and left. As a result, I’ll pass on offering commentary here — except to say that he sat facing the crowd behind an electronic keyboard as his feet pumped on pedals … and he was wearing flip-flops. Yeesh.

Here’s a photo, however.

It’s a holiday weekend, which means one extra day of partying down and supporting the local music scene without fear of a hangover-filled workday to follow. Here’s a quick breakdown of your best live music bets. For a more comprehensive schedule of concerts, check out our Upcoming Events page.

Thursday, July 2
Mike Dunn & the Kings of New England (pictured at right)/Will Quinlan/King of Spain Winter Park singer/songwriter Mike Dunn makes music that evokes freedom and wind in your face. His grabby, anthemic tunes send out a whiff of Americana, but at core they are pure, pop-infused rock ’n’ roll. Dunn pulls from a list of 11 confederates to make up his backing band, the Kings of New England, on any given night. No word on how many will show up at New World for this gig, but the safe bet is it won’t be all 11. Atlanta’s Rick Brantley was formerly on the bill but has been replaced by local one-man experimental rocker, King of Spain (Matt Slate). And Quinlan, well, we all know Quinlan, the dour dean of Tampa Bay’s Americana scene. Thurs., July 2, 9 p.m., New World Brewery, Ybor City, $7. —ES

Michael McDonald + Boz Scaggs Two of the most popular vocalists of the 1970s join together in a co-bill at Ruth Eckerd. My strong preference is Scaggs, with his round, throaty soul croon. His Silk Degrees (’76) is an unmitigated classic. Lately, Scaggs’ has added standards from the American Songbook to his repertoire, so his show will be a compendium of material over several decades. (Concertgoer alert: He’s going on first; to read more about him, check out the CL feature here.) When McDonald joined the Doobie Brothers in 1975, they went from a guitar-oriented bar band (albeit a slick one) to a Grammy-winning pop outfit dominated by McDonald’s keyboards and syrupy voice. He had a solid solo career in the 1980s, despite the blemish known as “Yah Mo B There.” Thurs., July 02, 7:30 p.m., Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, $62.50-$103. —Eric Snider

Friday, July 03
Starlight Mints/Evangelicals (pictured at left, photo by Sarah Cass) You might want to take a break from the Hot Dog show and stroll up the street for Starlight Mints, a band out of Norman, Okla. (home of Flaming Lips) that would make a proper co-bill with Sunbears!. The quartet of “pop mutants” brings plenty of whimsy and weirdness to their sound, but never strays from tried-and-true rock verities: hooks, tuneful vocals, muscular rhythms. The band is backboned by synthesizers, but adds playful twists — like the cartoon horns on “Zoomba” from their new album Change Remains. Evangelicals are also from Norman, and sound as if they might’ve been to a few barbecues at Coyne’s house. Fri., July 3, 9 p.m., New World Brewery, Ybor City, $8. —ES

Annual Hot Dog Show feat. Sunbears!/Juicy Pony/The Grecian Urns/eFFeX/Shunda K A summertime tradition. Folks gather in Ybor City for free barbecue, major slabs of live and DJ’d music, and the main event: a hot dog eating contest. This year’s headliner is an up-and-coming band from Jacksonville, Sunbears! — singer/instrumentalist/chief songwriter Jonathan Berlin and drummer Jared Bowser — who make, well, sunny, synthy pop with gauzy atmospherics and nods to the likes of the Beach Boys, Flaming Lips and others. (Check out my feature interview with Berlin here.) Juicy Pony, also from Jacksonville, leads more synth-dance. Fri., July 3, 9 p.m., Crowbar, Ybor City, $5. —ES

Sean Chambers w/Soul2Earth Chambers, one of the Bay area’s venerable blues artists, celebrates the release of his new CD, Ten ’Til Midnight, with this gig. In ’01, England’s Guitarist magazine named Chambers one of its 50 Greatest Blues Guitarists of all Time. Fri., July 3, Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa, $8. —ES

Saturday, July 04
Rockin’ Wings Concert feat. Amanda Overmyer (pictured at right) w/Greg Billings Band/Drew Street Mary Overmyer, who placed 11th in the seventh season of American Idol, has a decided Janis Joplin fixation. Her dirt-rock-meets-Southern-boogie sound is a perfect fit for her gargling-razorblades voice. This outdoor bash will be held on the grounds of the small airport in downtown St. Pete. Sat., July 4, 4 p.m., Albert Whitted Airport, St. Petersburg, $10 general/$5 children 6-12/$25 VIP. —ES

Let Freedom Jam! w/Middle Rhythm Session/3rd Stone/Diocious Another 4th of July bash, this one featuring MRS, a Tampa-based quartet that works the funk-jam tip. All you would-be Hendrix tribute bands out there, the best name’s been taken — but, ah, Gainesville’s 3rd Stone is not a Hendrix tribute band. Judging by the one song available on MySpace, the six-piece is an interesting amalgam of backpack hip-hop, contemporary R&B and jam-band rock. Sat., July 4, 8 p.m., Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa, $10. —ES

Beres Hammond The 53-year-old Jamaican singer delivers the kind of old-school melodic reggae that never goes out of style. Hammond’s soulful voice is about equal parts sand and lotion, and it’s obvious that as a kid he soaked up his share of Stax and Motown soul. Sat., July 4, 8 p.m. doors, 10 p.m. show, The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City, $35 general. —ES

Sunday, July 05
The 10,000lb Hamburger Tour w/A-Trak (pictured at right)/Rye Rye/Treasure Fingers/Hyphy Crunk/Pauly Crush/DJ Mega/Crate Brothers/Stavros/DJ Y-Not/DJ Queso Montreal DJ/turntablist A-Trak (real name: Alain Macklovitch) scratched his first record at 13, bought a used turntable and mixer with his Bar Mitzvah money, and in 1997 at 15, became the youngest (and first Canadian) to win the DMCs World DJ Championship. A dozen years later, A-Trak has proved himself to be an electronic music heavyweight — he runs hip-hop and electro record label Fool’s Gold with DJ Nick Catchdubs and is the official DJ of rapper/producer Kanye West, both while maintaining a busy solo career. This year he released two mix albums of energetic dance music, Infinity +1 and Fabriclive 45, the latter fusing classic house, newer funk-loop house, hip hop, electro house and disco with his signature scratch master style. The LA Times has called A-Trak a Rembrandt-caliber artist when it comes to live mixing and mashing for the dance floor, and you can see him in action on his “10,000lb Hamburger Tour” when he headlines an all-day Fourth of July “Red, White, & Bootay III” party at Crowbar; Baltimore emcee Rye Rye, disco house purveyor Treasure Fingers, LA’s fast dance spinning Hyphy Crunk, and a lineup of area DJs are also scheduled to play. Sun., July 5, 4 p.m.-2 a.m., Crowbar, Ybor City, $10 (includes barbeque). —LP

Benefit for Jessica Roberts feat. John Hancock/Morgan & Wildflower/Captain Obvious and the Duh Patrol/Jake Mackey/Mike Tozier/Kettle Of Fish/Orient Road A coterie of acoustic-based acts based in Tampa Bay join forces for a benefit. I’m most familiar with Tozier, who actually calls Nashville home these days — he’s a first-rate Dobro player and solid Delta blues singer, and also stretches into jam/reggae territory and more folk-based fare. Sun., July 5, 5 p.m., Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa, $10 donation. —ES

Boz Scaggs performs at Ruth Eckerd Hall Thurs., July 2

To casual music fans, Boz Scaggs is that smooth dude from the ’70s with those disco-ey hits “Lowdown” and “Lido Shuffle.” They might even know about his 1976 smash album Silk Degrees, which included those tunes as well as “Georgia,” “What Can I Say” and “Harbor Lights.”

Although Scaggs’ days as a major hitmaker ended in the early 1980s — in large part because he took a self-imposed hiatus for most of the decade — he has made estimable music in the 1990s and, especially, this decade. And he’s done so by turning to a familiar riff for recovering rock stars: singing old standards.

That news might cause eyes to roll — especially if you think Rod Stewart — but it would absolutely not apply in the case of Boz Scaggs. His But Beautiful (2003) and last year’s Speak Low are among the best examples of a veteran pop star delving into such old chestnuts as “What’s New?” “Sophisticated Lady,” “Easy Living,” “I’ll Remember April” and “Speak Low.”

He sings the material in a supple, torchy style, burrowing into the lyrics, caressing phrases with his round, throaty tenor. Scaggs has a natural knack for seducing you into these literate, urbane numbers culled from the legendary writers of the American Songbook. But Beautiful debuted at No. 1 on the jazz charts, but Scaggs, 65, does not consider himself a jazz singer. You won’t hear any scatting or bold deconstructions from him. Instead, he hews to the gorgeous melodies, adding slight curves and punctuations.

The singer did not enter into the world of standards lightly. He started toying with the tunes about 10 years ago, after making friends with a cluster of jazz musicians in his adopted hometown of San Francisco. The vocalist quickly discovered that the material “is much harder than more modern pop songs,” he said in a phone interview.

“I had to study. There were a few songs that fell a little more naturally into my style of singing, the ones in a bluesier vein. The rest of it, I had to work hard, study a lot, do a lot of practicing, searching, finding my own way with the songs. I’ve learned a lot, and it’s served me in other [musical] forms.”

That’s important. Scaggs hasn’t forgotten his past associations with pop/R&B, blues and rock. In fact, one of the most overlooked albums of the decade has been Dig, a program of sensual blue-eyed soul that could be regarded as “Silk Degrees II.” Big problem: Dig was released on Sept. 11, 2001. Into the tank it went.

These days, Scaggs’ concerts run the gamut of his wide-ranging musical palette, incorporating the Gershwin/Ellington/Weill milieu with originals from his own book. It’s significant to note that Scaggs does not try to standard-ize everything. Many of his hits retain the spunk and bounce of their original versions. “Some things have to stay within a certain arrangement — they don’t work out of context,” he explains. “‘Breakdown Dead Ahead’ doesn’t work without that tempo and aggressive guitar style. ‘Low Down,’ on the other hand, I’ve done in a number of different ways. It’s pretty malleable.”

Malleable is a good adjective for Scaggs’ career. He grew up near Dallas and started out as a preteen singing in his friend Steve Miller’s blues band, then scuffled around the London blues scene before settling in the hub of hippiedom, San Francisco, during the Summer of Love, 1967.

Reuniting with Miller, he appeared on the Steve Miller Band’s first two albums, then scored a solo deal on Atlantic. His self-titled debut, a gritty blues-rock effort recorded at Muscle Shoals and featuring lead guitar by Duane Allman, garnered only a lukewarm commercial reception.

Scaggs switched to Columbia and by 1974’s Slow Dancer had moved in a slicker pop-soul direction. He then joined forces with a cadre of studio musicians who would later form the band Toto and concocted Silk Degrees. Songs from the LP dominated the airwaves and also found their way into the clubs.

Although not categorically a disco record, it rode the wave that washed over American pop culture. Scaggs gently rejects the notion that Silk Degrees is among the best disco albums ever. “I never related what I did to the trendy scenes around me,” he says. “The style was more derived from people like the Isley Brothers, a lot of songs that came out of Philly and other urban R&B. The only things with contemporary dance beats were ‘What Can I Say,’ ‘Low Down’ and ‘It’s Over.’”

1977

Videos from that era capture Scaggs dressed in suits and big-collar shirts, tentatively dancing in front of large ensembles. They show a recalcitrant performer, a reluctant superstar. After 1980’s Top 10 Middle Man spawned the hits “JoJo” and “Breakdown Dead Ahead,” Scaggs simply left the biz.

He owned and operated the San Francisco nightclub Slim’s and performed there on rare occasions. “I just took off,” he explains, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “I had family matters to attend to, two young children to raise. I just didn’t have any music in me at the time. Because I’d had a great deal of success, I was able to step away from it. Retire, if you like.”

He returned to the shelves with 1988’s Other Roads, which peaked at No. 47 on the Billboard 200 and yielded the middling Adult Contemporary hit “Heart of Mine.” It was his last taste of chart success.

Although it’s improbable that Scaggs will remotely approach his former commercial perch, he sounds perfectly sanguine about walking away while his career was in high gear. “I needed those years to let the music come back into me,” he says. “I don’t think I would be as interested or involved in it as I am today if I wasn’t able to take that time off.”

Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald
Thurs., July 2, 7:30 p.m., Ruth Eckerd Hall. $103, $72.50, $62.50. rutheckerdhall.com.

“Breakdown Dead Ahead” from the 2000s

“Lowdown” from 1976 in Japan

“Never Let Me Go,” with still photos, but a good example of Boz singing a standard.

Some recent additions to our Upcoming Events concert calendar; for the comprehensive list, click here.

Saturday, May 23 Lush Progress Video Release Party w/Butch Ryan Band/Glasgow (New World Brewery, Ybor City)

Tuesday, May 26 The Juan Maclean (pictured) / The Field (Crowbar, Ybor City)

Saturday, May 30 Joecephus & The George Jonestown Massacre (The Garage, St. Petersburg)

Tuesday, June 09 New York Dolls (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)

Wednesday, June 10 Mishka w/Zaki Ibrahim (Orpheum, Ybor City)

Thursday, June 11 Mewithoutyou w/The Dear Hunter (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)

Friday, June 12 Steely Dan Rent Party ‘09 Tour (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)

Saturday, June 13 Crossbreed (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)

Thursday, June 25 Joey Cape (of Lagwagon), Jon Snodgrass and Cory Branan (of Drag the River) (New World Brewery, Ybor City)

Thursday, June 25 Peter Murphy (pictured) (Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg)

Friday, June 26 Van*Gloria (New World Brewery, Ybor City)

Friday, June 26 Yellowman (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)

Saturday, June 27 Drop Dead, Gorgeous (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)

Monday, June 29 Jenny Lewis w/Heartless Bastards (The Plaza Theatre, Orlando)

Thursday, July 2 Michael McDonald + Boz Scaggs (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)

Tuesday, July 7 Jason Ricci & New Blood (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)

Saturday, July 11 Aerosmith (pictured) w/ZZ Top (Ford Amphitheater, Tampa)

Saturday, July 18 Hey Monday w/This Providence/The Friday Night Boys/Stereo Skyline/The Bigger Lights (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)

Saturday, July 18 Ace Enders & A Million Different People w/Person L (Orpheum, Ybor City)

Sunday, July 26 Vans Warped Tour 2009 feat. Anti-Flag/Bad Religion/Black Tide/Bouncing Souls/Breathe Carolina/Chiodos/Dance Gavin Dance/Dear and the Headlights/Flogging Molly/Less Than Jake/Meg & Dia/NOFX/Senses Fail/Streetlight Manifesto/The A.K.A.s/The Ataris/The Devil Wears Prada/The White Tie Affair/many others (Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg)

Monday, July 27 Gogol Bordello (Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg)

Tuesday, July 28 American Idols Live Tour 2009 (St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa)

Thursday, July 30 Jeffree Starr (pictured) (Orpheum, Ybor City)

Friday, July 31 Blazed and Confused Tour feat. Snoop Dogg/Slightly Stoopid w/Stephen Marley (Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg)

Friday, July 31 REH on the Road: Flo Rida (Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg)

Saturday, Aug. 01 Cracker (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)

Sunday, Aug. 02 The Cab w/The Secret Handshake/Rocket to the Moon (Orpheum, Ybor City)

Sunday, Aug. 02 Torche w/House of Lightning/Averkiou (Czar, Ybor City)

Monday, Aug. 03 Green Day (St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa)

Saturday, Aug. 15 Incubus (Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa)

Friday, Sept. 25 Sugarland w/Jake Owen/Matt Nathanson (St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa)

Friday, Oct. 10 U2 (Raymond James Stadium, Tampa)