‘Pretty bad year’ brings Gary Allan true growth

One of the few songs Gary Allan didn’t sing off his new album, “Tough All Over,” on Sunday at the House of Blues was its closing track, “Putting My Misery on Display,” in which he lays out the heart-on-sleeve aspect of his job as a country singer and songwriter.

He didn’t need to sing it, having made the point, admirably, through a 90-minute set that reached into the pain he’s weathered since his wife’s suicide last year.

Allan neither wallowed in self-pity nor went into detail about his loss. He mentioned obliquely what most of his fans knew, saying, “Anybody that’s been paying attention knows I had a pretty bad year last year,” before playing his recent hit “Best I Ever Had,” an ode to a lost loved one that had the crowd swaying in sympathy and empathy.

Allan has turned tragedy into an opportunity for personal and artistic growth, the latter in evidence in the “Tough All Over” songs that were laced liberally through the show. The back story spilled over into his older songs too: he recorded Del Shannon’s “Runaway” six years ago, but it took on new relevance Sunday as he reached into his falsetto range to wo-wo-wonder why his woman left him.

The evening’s powerful subtext made for the occasional awkward moment: How do you weave material such as his 2001 hit version of Todd Snider’s breezily lightweight “Alright Guy” in with numbers that reach to the heart of human darkness?

But Allan dispatched both with a quiet honesty that communicated a sense that everyone has his or her own cross to bear. Johnny Cash is the famous touchstone in Jamie O’Hara’s “Nickajack Cave,” another song from the new album examining physical and emotional survival.

The 38-year-old Southern California native, now a Nashville resident, appears to have the goods to step up to the level of a Tim McGraw. If he can make that progression, he’d bring with him more deeply felt impressions from real life than McGraw’s push-button sentimentality.

Allan’s distinctive tenor often conjures tremulous vulnerability, and his accomplished seven-piece band provided the kind of heartland-rock texture and muscle that can spell crossover success.

The opening 40-minute set by Hanna-McEuen, a quartet fronted by offspring of two members of the genre-crossing Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, extended the promise of a debut album informed by classic-rock and alt-country influences, full of engaging harmonies out of the Everly Brothers tradition.