Jim White: True maverick

You can include Jim White in any list of underappreaciated songwriters. White, a formal Pentecostal fashion model and pro surfer,  isn’t so much a songwriter as he is a short-storyteller, a guy who puts narratives into song form.

His aren’t campfire tales, though. They venture into the darkness and dabble in irony, humor, violence, love, bathos and pathos. A few of his album titles are mere hints at what’s inside his music: “Drill a Hole in the Substrate and Tell Me What You See,” “Wrong-Eyed Jesus” and “Transnormal Skiperoo.”

White will be in town Saturday for a show at the Folly Theatre, 300 W. 12th St. The show is part of the “Cyprus Avenue Live” series, which is affiliated with Bill Shapiro’s weekly radio show on KCUR. Also performing: The SteelDrivers, a five-piece all-star band of country/roots/bluegrass musicians and songwriters. Tickets cost $15 to $60. Showtime is 7 p.m., including Shapiro’s question-and-answer session before the performance.