Alt-country firebrand Lydia Loveless heads Nightfall

photo Lydia Loveless

THE OPENERTiffany Taylor is a Chattanooga-based acoustic singer/songwriter and MakeWork grant recipient. Find out more at marytiffanytaylor.tumblr.com.IF YOU GO¦ What: Nightfall concert series featuring Lydia Loveless.¦ When: 8 p.m. Friday, June 13; Tiffany Taylor opens at 7 p.m.¦ Where: Miller Plaza, 850 Market St.¦ Admission: Free.¦ Phone: 423-265-0771.¦ Venue website: www.nightfallchattanooga.com.¦ Artist website: www.lydialoveless.com.HER ALBUMS2010: "The Only Man"2011: "Indestructible Machine"2014: "Some-where Else"

Rolling Stone and Spin both think you should be paying attention to the stage at Miller Plaza Friday night, June 13.

This week's Nightfall headliner, saw-edged, alt-country vixen Lydia Loveless, was named by both outlets as a new artist to watch.

The descriptions of the 23-year-old Ohio native suggest inattention is not something she's used to.

Allmusic.com calls her a "firebrand ... with the no-quarter attitude and spunk of punk rock divas." The Chicago Tribune has dubbed her "unvarnished and direct."

PopMatters.com dispenses with the subtlety entirely, writing: "If you believe in rock 'n' roll, you pray for people like Lydia Loveless."

For her part, Carla Pritchard, owner of Nightfall organizer Chattanooga Presents, says Loveless' set list may need to be reined in a bit for the family friendly show, but she's been a must-get for the series for a while now.

"I'll have to make sure that she doesn't include some lyrics in some of her songs," Pritchard says, laughing. "She's been someone that's been on our radar for a couple of years. She's still new and fresh to the scene and hasn't been in Chattanooga before, so we felt all those elements made her a good choice for us."

Loveless is hot off the release of her third honky-punk album, "Somewhere Else," which Bloodshot Records sent to stores on Feb. 18. That project follows two albums with an average critical rating of 82 percent on review aggregator Metacritic.com.

After her Chattanooga date, Loveless will continue for 20 more stops on an East Coast/Midwestern tour that will see her playing venues from Portland, Maine, to Madison, Wis.

Loveless' show caps off Nightfall's second consecutive year of bucking the series' tradition of taking a two-week break during Riverbend. Despite weak crowds the first weekend due to storms, last year's experiment with a gapless schedule proved successful enough that Pritchard says she was willing to give it another shot.

"We have a strong enough draw for an audience to justify continuing on with our schedule," she says. "The second week felt like an average week for us, so we felt like, 'OK, this idea has legs. We'll do it again.'

"This year we feel like people know what to expect."

Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.

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