Sound Check is the Globe’s weekly guide to concerts, tunes, and trends rooted in Boston and beyond. This column covers June 5-11.
Porter Wagoner, The Byrds, Steely Dan, Otis Redding, The Hold Steady, Reneé Rapp: Across the decades, countless artists have recorded songs with “Boston” in the title. But you wouldn’t know it from glancing at the Billboard Hot 100.
Of the 32,000-plus songs that have appeared on the chart since its debut in 1958, only a handful explicitly name check Boston. The first, Dave Loggins’s “Please Come to Boston,” peaked at No. 5, in 1974. It would be over 30 years before the city would appear on the chart again, this time via California band Augustana’s wistful No. 34 hit, “Boston.” (Of course, the band Boston logged 10 Hot 100 entries between 1976 and 1994, and Florida emcee Real Boston Richey earned a No. 47 song with his 2024 tune “Help Me,” but we’re strictly talking about song titles.)
Now, pop-country newcomer Stella Lefty chips in her breakthrough single “Boston,” which currently sits at No. 20 on the chart. “On a train back to Boston/And we’re jumpin’ the gun,” Lefty, 23, gushes on the chorus, which interpolates a melody from Noah Kahan’s hit “Stick Season.”
Lefty penned the song on a writing trip in Nashville earlier this year, when she says Boston was on her brain. As part of a stint opening for former “American Idol” contender Cameron Whitcomb, she had an upcoming performance at Boston’s House of Blues, and the city’s also the hometown of one of her pals in Los Angeles.
“For some reason, Boston has been the throughline of a lot of things,” Lefty says on a call this week, sitting at the same piano where she started writing the song. Coincidentally, “Boston” is printed on its side.
“I had no idea when I was writing the song that it said that,” she adds with a laugh.
While waiting for a new crush to pick her up during some downtime in Nashville, Lefty found herself tinkering at the piano “for fun,” and the chorus of “Boston” tumbled into her lap. She wrote the verses a week later, subconsciously nodding to her country music influences, which range from Randy Travis and Keith Whitley to Brad Paisley and Tim McGraw.
“I’m such a country fan, but I’m from outside of Chicago, so I’m not necessarily a ‘Southern girl,’” Lefty says.
That changed when Lefty moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane University, where she began uploading clips to TikTok of herself performing. She graduated in 2024 with a degree in public health, but thanks to her online hustle her career was headed in another direction. Shortly after graduation Lefty inked a publishing deal and moved to Los Angeles.
Since then, she’s released two EPs — 2025’s “Tragic, Really” and last month’s “Is This Heaven?”, which includes “Boston.” When Lefty released the song as a single in late March, it debuted at No. 95, marking her first entry on the Hot 100. As “Boston” gradually climbed the chart this spring, Lefty watched the song’s impact spread while on tour with Whitcomb.
“I was seeing from city to city that more and more people were singing it,” she says. “I had no expectation that anybody in these rooms was going to know it at all.”
The song’s got staying power. Last month, a horde of new high-charting Drake songs pushed “Boston” from No. 20 to No. 33, but the song has already reclaimed its No. 20 spot. Next week’s chart update will reveal if the song continues its upward trajectory.
“It really is all I’ve ever wanted,” Lefty concludes. “I dreamed of this when I was a little girl in my bedroom with my guitar.”
GIG GUIDE
It’s all child’s play this weekend at the Xfinity Center, which will host performances from rapper and cultural multi-hyphenate Kid Cudi (Friday) and boisterous rap-rock figure Kid Rock (Saturday). Leader Bank Pavilion continues the fresh air fare with a mid-week rock block, courtesy of British singer (and Aerosmith collaborator) YUNGBLUD (Tuesday) and a touring trio of Les Claypool’s projects: Primus, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, and The Frog Brigade (Wednesday).
Pop crooners Jason Mraz and Josh Groban released new LPs on the same day last month, and are fittingly both performing in Boston on Saturday. Mraz will be at the Boch Center Wang Theatre with “Grandma’s Gospel Favorites” – yes, it’s really a gospel album – and Groban heads to TD Garden with his new LP, “CINEMATIC.” R&B powerhouse and EGOT recipient Jennifer Hudson will join Groban at the arena as a “special guest.”
Also at TD Garden, Aussie heartthrobs 5 Seconds of Summer set the tone for the season (Friday), R&B singer Summer Walker revels in the closure of her 2025 album “Finally Over It” (Sunday), and Spanish pop star Rosalía immerses fans in her multi-layered LP “LUX,” one of the Globe’s picks for the best albums of 2025 (Thursday).
Lovable power-pop and geek-rock act They Might Be Giants camp out at the House of Blues Friday and Saturday. Then elusive emcee and producer Baby Keem, cousin of hip-hop giant Kendrick Lamar, doubles down at MGM Music Hall at Fenway with Sunday and Monday performances tied to his February album, “Ca$ino.”
Two New Orleans gems are in town Sunday: the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, who head to the Cabot in Beverly, and Tank and the Bangas, bringing their buoyant blend of funk and soul to the Sinclair via their May LP, “The Last Balloon.”
The Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame presents AVTT/PTTN – the project of folkies The Avett Brothers and Faith No More frontman Mike Patton – on Wednesday at the Boch Center Wang Theatre. The following evening, the historic venue sets the clock back a few decades to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Grateful Dead’s 1976 performance at the Wang, then called Boston Music Hall. Tribute act Playing Dead will perform in the theater’s grand lobby and play some of the tunes from the Dead’s 1976 set; celebrate early by grabbing a vinyl copy of the performance, which was one of this year’s exclusive Record Store Day releases.
And to squeeze in a few more favorites: husky-voiced emcee Freddie Gibbs Friday at Roadrunner, psychedelic singer and multi-instrumentalist Tash Sultana Saturday at MGM Music Hall at Fenway, and post-punk greats Echo & The Bunnymen Thursday at Roadrunner.
NOW SPINNING
Today Junior, “Keep On Pushing Me.” How exactly does a person find a path forward when reality feels upside-down? For Boston band Today Junior, the answer sounds something like “Keep On Pushing Me,” a grounding wallop of indie rock. The trio’s latest single is a pledge of perseverance in the face (or perhaps in spite of) 2026’s unraveling − and the results are as dance-y as they are motivational.
BONUS TRACK
Free music festivals abound on Saturday. The New England Americana Festival at Medfield’s Bellforge Arts Center offers a sampling of twangy tunes from the region, while Harpoon Brewery presents locals like Lily Fitts and producer Lightfoot at the Lawn On D for a mini fest called Boston Chilling. SOMEDAY Fest, a free hyper-local event that launched last year, expands to two days and takes over Warehouse XI Saturday and Sunday, with performances on deck from Massachusetts acts like Puppy Problems, Kimaya Diggs, and Tiberius.
Victoria Wasylak can be reached at victoria.wasylak@globe.com. Follow her on Bluesky at VickiWasylak.bsky.social.
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