Is It The Kiss

What's most immediately striking about Ana Egge's latest, Is It the Kiss, is it's rich sonic coherence. Ana's at the center, but the term singer/songwriter doesn't cover it. This is much more than words and tunes - the whole is informed by her deeply-rooted musical intelligence. It's only because she defies category that she usually winds up in the folk bin, but from the beginning she's been inspired by the raunchy warmth and laid-back intensity of singers such as Etta James and Ann Peebles, while emulating the strangely sturdy crystalline quality, real and true, of Dolly Parton.