This band started out of a restart. Breakups always bring the best material — and that goes for Steven McCauley musically moving past his freshly felled Scarlet Oaks project. Reaching back to the roots of pop-rock — that strut-inducing "walking beat" and the Southern-dipped sun-soaked jangle where early rock axed into the statelier folk fields — McCauley penned some old-fashioned, toe-tapping, breezy strummers that let the sunshine in. Bolstered now by a quartet charmed with tambourine-taps, harmonized girl-boy duets and warm warbling keyboards, the single "Nighttime Sky"/"Long Beaten Love" has a sweet, hooky swagger that brings back those midsummer nights of stargazing splendors in the grass.

The Walking Beat's "Nighttime Sky" release show is Saturday, Oct. 6, at the Old Miami, featuring the High Strung and Dark Red. Doors at 9, and the $8 cover charge includes a free vinyl 7-inch single.

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