Mar. 27—This Thursday, former Greenville/Celeste resident and country recording artist John David Kent will visit his old stomping grounds to meet up with old friends and give a performance.

The show will be the first of three back-to-back concerts celebrating the release of Kent's third solo album — with the first two shows (in Greenville and Trenton) revisiting material from his previous two albums and the third (in McKinney) featuring music from his latest release, titled "Patina."

"This will actually be my first full band show in years and the band will be my kids, with my oldest, Reed, playing guitar and one of my younger boys, Zy, on drums, with one of his friends on keys and another on bass," Kent said. "At the show in Greenville, we'll play through the first album (titled 'John David Kent') in its entirety.

"It's been 10 years since I released my last album, but I've enjoyed going back and revisiting those songs, and I'm proud of the work that went into them and the talent of the guys I worked with while recording them," he added. "But it is fun playing these songs now with teenagers, because it brings a different energy when you have 17-year-olds on drums and keys, and a 19-year-old on bass."

Kent's show on Thursday will be at 7 p.m. at the Texan Theater in Greenville, his Friday show (consisting of music from his second album "Before the Sun Comes Up") will be at 7 p.m. at The Rock Yard in Trenton, and his Saturday show (music from "Patina") will be at 7 p.m. at Hank's Texas Grill in McKinney.

Kent first gained considerable notoriety at the young age of 16 as the drummer in the rock band Radish, whose breakout album, "Restraining Bolt," saw him, Ben Kweller and Ryan Green (all from the Greenville area) on a world tour, and performing on national TV on the David Letterman and Conan O'Brien shows.

On the heels of that success, Kent built a recording studio in Celeste called The Vault and formed Blackland Records. In 2011, he released his first solo country album.

While it's been 10 years since the release of his previous album, Kent has stayed busy gigging and writing in Austin, and now in Nashville, where he and his family now reside.

"I've been coming to Nashville about once per quarter for the past 12 years, and I mostly come for writing, because co-writing is a big part of the music community in Nashville," Kent said. "However, we moved from Celeste to Marble Falls — which is outside of Austin (in 2009) — first, because it was more practical for my family at the time.

"Later, when my son, Zy, was getting serious about music and was about to be a freshman, I really wanted to get him plugged into a music-specific program ... so between wanting him to go to the Nashville School of the Arts and so many of my musician friends already having moved there from LA, New York and Austin, it just seemed like the universe was pushing us there," he said.

While he loves the music community and climate in Nashville, Kent recorded his latest album in New York, with producer Ben Rice (known for his work with Valerie June, The Candles and Norah Jones). Despite recording in the Big Apple with seasoned studio musicians, Kent wrote many of the songs for "Patina" through a lens of looking back on his past — much of which was spent in small, northeast Texas towns.

On his song, "Collar Blue," he sings about the strong work ethic he witnessed in those communities. Similarly, in another track, "My Old Self," he captures a feeling that many can relate to of wanting to "return to a simpler version" of themselves.

"It's an album of confessions and observations," Kent said. "There's a piece of me in every song, but only some are autobiographical. Others are observational, and are based on people and things I've seen them go through.

"Regardless of if a song is based on something that happened to me or someone else, it's all true to life, and reflects what I saw growing up in northeast Texas," he added.

With Kent's album release being spread out over three shows, an "album release weekend pass" or "golden ticket" to all three shows is available for purchase through a link on his website www.johndavidkent.com for $35. Otherwise, the cover charge for each individual show will be $15 at the venue.