Dayna Kurtz – Another Black Feather

Dayna Kurtz seems to sing from another age, when her full-throated richness and deep range were not anomalous. Two years ago, on the album Beautiful Yesterday, she highlighted this anachronism to great effect by covering Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington. But Kurtz is a singer and songwriter, so she returns to the present with Another Black Feather. She serves as a welcome contrast to the ragged troubadours (Dylans descendants) and diary transcribers (Jewels ilk) of the folk scene that has succored her. And with her sense of place heard in the New Orleans ode Nola and the Latin-tinged Venezuela shes more than another veteran hopeful with a battered guitar case. The album ranges from urban-twang seduction (Showdown) to political-personal diatribe (Its The Day Of Atonement, 2001), with just enough irregularity to allow Kurtzs voice its full range. She even gives Johnny Cashs All Over Again a shuffling jazz treatment circa 3 a.m., 1958. Maybe shes just timeless.