A HARD ROCK PLACE

Those who chose to rock, I salute you.

Sunday, the first real rock show in nearly a decade was staged at the James Brown Arena.

Before the first tour bus arrived, I predicted this would be a make-or-break moment for both Global Spectrum, which recently took up management at the venue, and Augusta music fans, who have been clamoring for years to be included on tour maps.

Thankfully, the show, which featured Avenged Sevenfold, Shinedown, Buckcherry and Saving Abel, did well.

Well, well enough.

About 4,600 tickets were sold, a long way from a full house (about 8,000). But the Global Spectrum folks, 95 Rock (which sponsored the show) and the promoter who brought it in were pleased. Hopefully, this will mean seeing Augusta again on touring schedules.

WE ARE FAMILY

There's an interesting project recently started on wikia music. The goal is to produce a definitive record of Augusta music, with local fans adding, wikipedia-style, fondly remembered acts and venues. So far, the fledgling list boasts an impressive number of acts, some fondly remembered and others better forgotten. I added two mid-1980s house party favorites, the Outlines and Crawling Pegs. I'll be interested to see what other names get dusted off in Augusta's collective cranial archives. The Web address for the Augusta Music family tree is augustamusic.wikia.com.

A NICKEL MORE

As a long-time fan of Grady Nickel the songwriter, I'm exceedingly glad to see enormous growth in Grady Nickel the performer.

Always a champion for Mr. Nickel's best known Augusta-based project, the late, often-great Horsepower, I have long believed in his potential. I loved his ability to blend the personal with the populist, to inject complex ideas with seemingly simple songs, to shift gears from hard rock to beautiful ballads.

I also felt his output was uneven, the work of an artist searching for the sound he could call his own.

There were times when Mr. Nickel would turn a simple phrase and chord change so beautifully that comparisons to Gram Parsons and Neil Young became easy. There were others when it felt like he was trying too hard, stuck in a rut of emulating those musicians he clearly idolized -- times when, ironically, those Parsons and Young comparisons became a little too easy.

Mr. Nickel, who recently relocated to Nashville, Tenn., has just released Certified , a simple, strong and surprisingly soulful collection of tunes that find him abandoning his creative bad habits in favor of a sound that seems much more natural.

The new songs are sung in a world-weary voice that combines the best elements of Southern rock, country and Stones-style barroom blues. Veering, as such songs must, toward thematic ideas of loss and redemption, they demonstrate that while comparisons to artists who have influenced might still be appropriate, it's because he's producing tunes that should stand the test of time. Standout tracks include Never Been to Tupelo , Certified and Cold Eyes. Horsepower fans will be glad to note that the band's original drummer, David Swanagin, plays drums on the tracks, and guitarist Keith Jenkins guests on Wrong Side of the Line .

Mr. Nickel will perform at the 12 Bands of Christmas concert Dec. 21.