We like Travis Champ for the same reason we like fried pickles, Schlitz in a bottle and all breeds of big dogs - they're all good things that come without an ounce of pretense or posing. Poet Champ came into some Oregon coastal notoriety with his poetry collection, Old Nehalem Road. He set his poems of boyhood memory, baseball and the fate of boys to war to song, inhabiting a masculine world, one that is shared artfully through old school country style. Champ's hooks and emotive guitar chords are set against his semi-monotone, yet smooth and resonant vocals. James Owen Greenan's drums offer crisp rhythms even in the slower paced songs. Jon Feeder's bass release tasty melodic bass interludes. Together, they are The Cedar Shakes, performing an old time Americana sound with a punkish flair.

THE CEDAR SHAKES, w/Dusty Santamaria, 10 p.m., Le Voyeur, 404 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, 360.943.5710