Despite being a singer-songwriter from Nashville, Ruston Kelly doesn’t want to be called a country artist. He prefers the term “dirt emo,” a phrase that reflects the inspiration he took from pop punk and emo music in his formative years. Now he’s released an album of covers titled “Dirt Emo Vol. 1,” which includes his take on classic emo standards from Dashboard Confessional, Blink-182, and My Chemical Romance, among others. Before his show tonight at Mercury Ballroom, Kelly returned to WFPK to perform a couple tunes from his 2018 debut album, Dying Star.