Po' Girl

The Be Good Tanyas broke out of Vancouver with a style that mixed mountain music with just a hint of urban funk. Po' Girl, an offshoot project with BGT singer-guitarist-banjo picker Trish Klein and another Vancouver folkie, Allison Russell, mines a similar vein of back-porch, acoustic intimacy, but moves the music from the hills and hollers of Appalachia to the moss-drenched balconies of Nawlins. Russell's singing evidences a slurred, breathy quality similar to Klein's BGT partners Frazey Ford and Samantha Parton--the Vancouver sound seems to involve a sort of mumbled, intermittently intelligible delivery that is no less evocative for being difficult to decipher. On "Bad Luck Day Baby" Russell breaks it up with bluesy belting that recalls a more energetic Norah Jones. "Bleak St." shows that, like the Tanyas, Po' Girl can groove without getting loud, and they write songs that rest comfortably alongside classic tunes like Lester Brown's "Abilene." They may even be great songs: it would be easier to tell if you could understand more of the words. Still, BGT fans won't be disappointed, nor will anyone interested in what folk might sound like in the future. --Michael Ross