April 7-13, 2005

musicpicks

Ana Egge

rock/pop

There's nothing fancy about Brooklyn singer-songwriter Ana Egge. Her fourth album, Out Past the Lights (Grace/ParkinSong), is full of unassuming acoustica. Pedal steel points "Apple Tree" toward country; "Straight to My Head" would be a soul song if it had any ambition. Even the garagey "Closer to the Motor" doesn't make it out of the bedroom, let alone the garage. Egge's voice is plain and clear if you make the effort to grab it. Her lyrics are even more sparse; she gives just enough clues to deepen the mystery. With a solid chorus and a few sharp details, only "Wedding Dress" has anything like a plot, and that's mostly a figment of the listener's imagination. The narrator of the folky "Stone Bone" could be the ticking-bomb ranter next door or the mumbling woman who wanders around town most nights before crashing at the train station until dawn, while "Victoria" breezes in and out in four lines. Egge's music is easy to listen to, but like her characters, it's hard to get to know.

Thu., April 7, 8:30 p.m., $12, with Ruthie Foster, Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St., 215-928-0770.

—M.J. Fine