Singer-guitarist Frenchie Moe has quite the backstory: Born in France during the ’80s, she was performing blues as a teenager, and her first band was with veteran UK bluesman Victor Brox. For you late-’60s vinyl junkies, that’s the gentleman who sang lead in the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. In New Orleans she was mentored by another pair of blues sages, Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the late Coco Robicheaux, and this is her long-playing debut.

The first thing you’ll notice is that she doesn’t sound quite like anybody else. Her voice has a theatrical quality that would likely be at home in cabaret, which means she treats these blues numbers as character songs, often giving them a different spin than you might expect. Chris Kenner’s “Something You Got” has been covered a zillion times, but never before in French and seldom as an elated love song rather than a raunchy shuffle. She also makes Dr. John’s “Mos’ Scocious” a little slinkier, keying into the romance and wit in the Good Doctor’s lyrics. The original title track also gives her some good lyrics to work with, recounting a few of this city’s lost souls.

As a guitarist, Frenchie Moe favors a clean tone and melodic runs. Her fluid solo on “Too Much Fun” lifts a good-timey rocker up a few notches. There’s a touch of B.B. King’s influence on “Gotta Have a Witness,” and a few touches of Leo Nocentelli/Meters funk riffage in “Hot Time.” It sounds like she’s absorbed just enough of New Orleans music to enhance her own individual style.