Kathleen Grace Band : Mirror

Again demonstrating that she is as gifted an actress and storyteller as she is a vocalist, L.A.’s Kathleen Grace, together with her estimable bandmates-guitarist Perry Smith, pianist Matt Politano, bassist Sam Minaie, drummer Matt Mayhall, percussionist Robert Wilmore and multi-instrumentalist Erik Kertes-opts for a nearly all-original playlist for her third album, with results as varied as they are stunning.

Filling six delectable roles, she is the wizard conjuring dangerous enchantment in the opening title track, ringmaster of the Brechtian carnival that is the urgently sinister “Penny,” an alabaster goddess gliding through the hymn-sweet tenderness of “Elijah,” and, on “Am I Enough Yet,” a rollicking (if self-doubting) goodtime girl who sounds as if she’s just stepped from the curb of London’s swingin’, mid-’60s Carnaby Street. She also proves herself as sultry and street-smart as Peggy Lee, armed and ready for conquest in “The Furies,” and molds a fog-bound re-imagining of the themes explored in Cole Porter’s “Love for Sale” with “A Place for You.”

Grace and company close with the album’s sole cover, wallowing in the countrified blues of Randy Newman’s “Let Me Go,” reminding us what a cunning concoction Newman’s puree of youthful arrogance and neediness is.

Originally Published January 1, 2009