SATURDAY

Buddy Holly was more than just another ’50s rockabilly. Forty-five years after his death at age 22 in a February plane crash alongside Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, the Texas-born singer, songwriter, and guitarist’s influence on rock music is still apparent all over the radio. Adept at high-velocity, three-chord ramalama (“That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue”) and poetic, choir-boy pop (“Words of Love”), the horn-rimmed, ordinary-looking guy helped establish a model whose elements have been incorporated by hepcats, punks, honky-tonkers, and twee-poppers alike. Though Holly may not have had the bad-boy charisma of Elvis, his winsome vocals and expert songcraft endure. Beloved by Dylan, covered by the Beatles and the Stones, held up as fashion inspiration by Elvis Costello, Holly—and his songbook—will be taken on by a lengthy roster of local roots-rockers led by warm-voiced vocalist J.P. McDermott and his band Western Bop (pictured). McDermott promises that no songs will be repeated and that a few side trips to Valens and Bopper tuneage will be included. The show starts at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, at the Half Moon BBQ, 8235 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring. $10. (301) 585-1290. (Steve Kiviat)