Pieta Brown and Bo Ramsey

It should be noted (just to get it out of the way) that Pieta Brown is folk-blues singer Greg Brown’s daughter. His influence is audible on her debut CD, especially in her sly, slightly offbeat sense of lyrical humor and in the way she holds on to stray syllables — just a little bit — and lets the big ones slide. However, her sultry, quiet voice slides through her sometimes slumped and drowsy, sometimes joyous songs in ways all her own. Her accompanist is guitarist Bo Ramsey, whose work is easily recognizable from Greg Brown’s records and from the singular guitar and production work he contributed to Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and Essence. Together, Pieta Brown and Ramsey craft Brown’s lyrics (If you mess up/Just tell the truth to me) and barely distorted guitar lines so that they hit a listener’s soft spot. Fans of rusty, real, visceral folk — no lilts or flutters here — shouldn’t miss this.