8

SUNDAY

Pop music places limits on verisimilitude. There are lots of songs about drunks, but imagine if everyone who sang them tried to sound drunk: You’d never make out two-thirds of the lyrics, you’d be subjected to a soundscape of simulated barfing, and “You look jesh like mah sister” would be the new “My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.” Yeah, that second alternative might sound intriguing to some of you Shane MacGowan fans, but for a more conventional tippler’s tale, try Allison Moorer’s “One on the House,” from her latest CD, The Duel. When she sings to the bartender, “My mouth is bone dry,” there’s a little break in her classic-country alto, just at the end of “dry,” that hits the spot as truly as anything from those bottles behind the bar. Drown your sorrows in Moorer’s when she performs at 7:30 p.m. at the Birchmere, 3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria. $17.50. (703) 549-7500. (Pamela Murray Winters)