Amy Rigby, Till the Wheels Fall Off

On her three previous, criminally underheard records, Amy Rigby won our hearts with her tuneful, world-weary wit, mapping out the emotional landscape of the mid-30s woman who feels wiser with age just as the world’s become more confusing with time. There’s nothing here as transcendent as “Sleeping With the Moon” or funny as “Cynically Yours,” the two best songs from 2000’s The Sugar Tree. But “Are We Ever Gonna Have Sex Again?” has Rigby’s best blend of bawdiness and disappointed realism. And she approaches a perfect merging of sentimentality and cynicism—one of her strongest songwriting skills—on the fragile 9/11 lament “Don’t Ever Change,” with its desperate yet optimistic line “I’m holding on to everything that’s good in this world; there’s a lot that’s good in this world.” Rigby plays the 400 Bar May 16. 400 Bar, 400 Cedar Ave., (612) 332-2903, 400bar.com