Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Think of Po’ Girl as four young women exploring their inner minstrels, summoning weary blues, mountain music and what they call “creaky old jazz songs.” Like the Be Good Tanyas, Po’ Girl’s members are folk-festival sensations, thrilling audiences with their homespun musicianship and backporch harmonies. Here, banjo tunes like “Angels of Grace” could liven up any parlor room, while the fiddle-fuelled “To the Angry Evangelist” has the power to raise church rafters. Undeniable old-world charm.

She excavates emotion with the skill of a seasoned coal miner. Like actress Helen Mirren, Williams digs into subjects like love, loss and redemption with wisdom and a mature sexiness. As usual, her latest has lots of yearning, especially on songs such as “Fancy Funeral” and “Mama You Sweet,” about her mother’s death. There’s plenty of heartache, too, on bluesy country numbers like “Learning How to Live.” But Williams is at her best on “Come On,” an acerbic kiss-off to a former lover that she delivers with rapier-like wit.

It’s been a longtime since Scotland’s Simple Minds rivaled Ireland’s U2 as the kings ofCeltic rock. You’d have to go all the way back to 1985, when theinclusion of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” in the movie The Breakfast Clubpushed Simple Minds into the stratosphere. But don’t feel sorry forsinger Jim Kerr, who owns homes in Nice and London and a luxury hotelin Sicily. His band’s latest is a return to form, featuringradio-friendly rockers like “Rockets” and “Kiss and Fly” that shouldkeep the coffers filled. July 2009