folk

Being a folk singer doesn't necessarily mean being a miserable bastard. With a wistful air and a winning smile, Vance Gilbert is one who believes the ideal songwriter is also equal parts comedian, somebody who can swoon when the music is playing and have the crowd rolling in the aisles in between. Last year's Unfamiliar Moon (Disismye Music), a mixed bag of burning romantic ballads and brooding dirges, was supported by performances that were hardly as heavy. Firstly, the busy arrangements got stripped down to solo guitar, revealing understated strength in tunes like the melancholy "Leaving Avon." And second, there was the banter. With the final chords still ringing, the stout and strong-voiced Gilbert would launch into tangential tirades about the music industry, race, his regimen of mood stabilizers and even his poodle. In a spring show at The Point, "Unforgivable," a jazz-tinged torch song, was set up with an imaginative intro placing Gilbert in 1950s New York, sharing a studio with a team of RCA songwriters and scrambling to write Dinah Washington's latest single before they all lose their jobs. The Philadelphia-born performer has spent almost 20 years carving a loyal crowd out of the fertile New England folk grounds, but if Vance ever throws in the towel, at least he has a promising second career on the standup circuit.

Sun., Jan. 8, 2 p.m., $18, The Last Chance Cafe, 539 San Diego Ave., Jenkintown, 215-663-9338.