Michael Tarbox leads The Tarbox Ramblers, a band best known for a roughhewn sound drawing equally from American gothic, Appalachian and paleo-blues traditions. But with “My Primitive Joy,” his solo debut, the music has begun to change. Recorded this spring in a converted pharmacy on the outskirts of Nashville, his new album bypasses the Ramblers’ backwoods squall entirely. Instead Tarbox gives us an ambitious set of performances centering on acoustic songs – many of them brief - with understated melodies and spare arrangements.