Sarah Borges and The Broken Singles will play Kirk Avenue Music Hall, 22 Kirk Ave., Roanoke, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. $10. Contact myspace.com/kirkavenuemusic, sarahborges.com

Boston-based roots rockers Sarah Borges and The Broken Singles kick off their new record with a shout-out to groupies.

Or, more specifically, the song "Do It For Free" is for the "creepy guys in the audience," Borges said.

Sample lyric: "It's always the same every night/I'm playin' in some bar/While I'm up there workin'/You're out there waitin', waitin.' "

"You know, there's one in every town, typically," said Borges, who brings her act to Kirk Avenue Music Hall on Wednesday. "Don't get me wrong. We love our creepy folks, but this is sort of my little ode to them. And sometimes you actually like the creepy folks. There's been a time or two where I thought the creepy folks were actually kind of charming."

Expect tough vocals, hot musicianship and an energetic show when singer/guitarist Borges and her band -- Rob Dulaney (drums), Binky (bass, vocals) and Lyle Brewer (guitar) -- come to town. The band's new CD, "The Stars Are Out" (Sugar Hill), is a mix of Borges' songwriting and some choice covers. Her own songs, including "Do It For Free," "Me And Your Ghost" and "Better at the End of the Day" (co-written with the band), hold their own with Smokey Robinson's "Being With You" and NRBQ's "It Comes to Me Naturally."

On the latter, Borges turns Al Anderson's tomcat-on-the-prowl lyrics upside down, sounding like a wild woman while she's doing it.

"It's a weird one from a lady's point of view, but I always introduce it as, 'A song about catting around -- but for me, it's about kittening around," she said. "Al Anderson, from NRBQ ... called me maybe two weeks ago to say that he liked our version. So I think we've succeeded. That was pretty awesome."

Go to blogs.roanoke.com/cutnscratch to hear a podcast with Borges, who spoke with us from her band van as they left a truck stop outside Austin, Texas, and headed toward Nashville, Tenn. We play songs from the new disc, talk about them, and Borges dispenses some invaluable information to broke people looking to save money at the laundromat.