Dylan Earl’s voice is as smooth as a honky-tonk dance floor, tender and powerful as his low croon carves somewhere between Randy Travis and Merle Haggard. His new fourth LP Level-Headed Even Smile, on Gar Hole Records, offers up the Arkansas kicker’s best yet, rooted in sharp and moving songwriting cut from long drives and longing nights, and an independent outlaw spirit that declares, “I’d rather be a bootlegger than a bootlicker.” With the evening bookended by Wonder Woman of Country Melissa Carper’s indelible twang and Kathryn Legendre’s fresh Here’s Your Honky Tonk, it’s a dance for days bill. – Doug Freeman