The liner notes for Don’t Stop boast that the album was recorded live in four hours, and whether it’s a function of recording live, in a short time or the songs selected, the album presents Ingrid Lucia in her best light. The spry, swinging arrangements and light-heartedness of the tunes make the best use of her high, stylized vocals. She plays sex kitten with the double entendre-laden “Big Long Slidin’ Thing,” but it’s more comic than bawdy. When she sings, “If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight),” she breathily hints at what she’d do, but “I’d be anything but blue” leaves a lot to the imagination.

 

Lucia’s song choices almost all feature a bit of language or a turn of phrase that hints at their origins in the past, but her performance never leaves them sounding like exercises in nostalgia. She also arranges Steve Earle’s “Hometown Blues” to swing like songs 30 or more years older. The band certainly helps—Duke Heitger, Craig Klein, John Fohl, Bert Cotton, Gerald French and Jesse Boyd are the Flying Neutrinos this time around—but Lucia’s charisma and charm bring the songs to life.

 

Ingrid Lucia & the Flying Neutrinos play Jazz Fest Sunday, May 6 at 3:05 p.m. at the Economy Hall Tent.