A Live Extravaganza

Ashleigh Flynn’s latest, The Low Arc of the Sun (self-released April 19), demonstrates both her vibrance and versatility when it comes to exercising the vast arc of her musical gift. The Portland, Oregon-based singer-songwriter’s albums have always found her probing the wider depth of Americana, but here, in an eight-song set recorded live before an appreciative audience in 2014, she runs a musical gamut that takes her from the rowdy, rollicking traditional-sounding country of “Don’t Leave Me Lonesome” and the popular Buck Owens standard “Tiger By The Tail,” to more reflective ballads of insight and circumspect such as “Winter Song” and “Fallen.”

The songs in-between — like the traditional-sounding narrative “Barrow” and the daunting but defiant “Much Too Proud” — prove that, no matter the tone or the topic, Flynn is well-equipped to handle what needs to be expressed. Her able five-piece band — Kathryn Claire (fiddle, harmonies), David Gerow (electric mandolin), Don Henson (piano, typewriter, percussion), Allen Hunter (bass) and Joe Trump (drums) — are also well up to the task, allowing The Low Arc of the Sun to shine brightly indeed.