Among this year’s local acts is Eric Britt, whose thoughtful, passionate album Greener was released last fall.

In Greener pastures for Eric Britt, Connect Savannah’s Bill DeYoung wrote in part:

The former frontman for the highly-regarded roots-rocking band Hazel Virtue battled addictions, depression, personal trauma and a trainload of chained-and-locked emotional baggage to emerge victorious – and sober – with Greener, a highly personal set of songs produced at Elevated Basement Studios here in Savannah.

Personal, yes. But Greener is accessible, and highly enjoyable, acoustic-based rock ‘n’ roll. It may be the best locally-made record so far in 2012.

In that interview, Britt gives a lot of credit to Elevated Basement’s Kevin Rose, who engineered Greener and played lead guitar, piano, and percussion on it.

There’s clearly a redemptive quality to the entire album — from the glorious cover photo of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist with the sunrise in the distance right through to the last song, the uptempo “Act Your Age”.

You can sample and buy Greener at cdbaby, or download a couple of songs on Britt’s website. Britt’s keeping a busy schedule of both local and out-of-town gigs.

At the Savannah Stopover, Britt will be backed by a band that includes Zach Smith, Ira Miller, and Craig Tanner.

Here’s a live version of “Full Moon”:

Eric Britt’s Stopover gig is slated for The Jinx at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 8.

Click here for the full Savannah Stopover schedule.

In the days leading up to the Stopover, I’ll be posting quite a number of short previews like this. So far I’ve previewed Stop Light Observations, Mac DeMarco, Little Tybee, Heyrocco, and of Montreal.

Click here for all my Savannah Stopover previews.

Click here to go to the Stopover’s page devoted to Eric Britt.

I wrote in my Do column today about tonight’s CD release party for Roger Moss and Eric Jones’ Sentimental Strain and the Savannah Stopover-produced gig on Friday at The Jinx with Modern Skirts and The District Attorneys. (Click here for clips from those two Athens-based bands.)

The SMN also has coverage of several gigs by Eric Britt and of Tuesday’s Live Wire appearance by Orgone.

Looking ahead over the next couple of weeks, Live Wire has some especially big gigs.

There are obviously all sorts of gigs by other Savannah acts, including one of my favorite bands Damon and the Shitkickers who have a typically busy weekend: Friday – 10pm-2:00am at Huc-A-Poo’s on Tybee, Saturday – 6pm-8:30pm at The Jinx and later that night 10pm-2:00am at Wild Wing.

But you’re likely to see and hear some pretty good live music on your computer this weekend. There’s a live webcast from Bonnaroo starting at 12:30 p.m. CDT on Friday:

So that means 1:30 p.m. Eastern time. Alabama Shakes, Radiohead, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, The Avett Brothers — and all that is just on Friday.

Here’s the rather weak trailer Bonnaroo has created for the webcast: