Also this issue: The Big Con Why Philadelphia bands play the CMJ festival. -Patrick Rapa Tropical Impressions Caetono Veloso tells the truth. -A.D. Amorosi suitespot -Peter Burwasser on Classical Back to Basics Which in The Divine Comedy's case means less rock, more baroque. -Sam Adams Flute Awakening -Peter Burwasser Right On Time -Sam Adams Catherine Irwin -Sam Adams Jack Johnson -Chris Parker

November 7-13, 2002

musicpicks

Kim Richey

With the sensuality of Lucinda Williams and the brainy craft of Aimee Mann, Kim Richey is the whole package. You might call Rise (Lost Highway), Richey's fourth, a country album, but only if you accept that it's her country, and her terms. Producer Bill Bottrell (Sheryl Crow, Shelby Lynne) furnishes touches that lift the songs ever so slightly off the ground, like the echoing guitar of "Girl in a Car," or the new wave keyboards of "The Circus Song (Can't Let Go)," but of course it's Richey's voice, equal parts rough and smooth, half "let's do it" and half "I told you so" that ties it all together. Best of all is "Electric Green," a duet with Pete Droge so hypnotic you have to sit down with the lyric sheet and learn the words, just so it's not the same phrase running through your head all day.

Wed., Oct. 13, 8 p.m., $16, with Jay Bennett and Edward Burch, The TLA, 334 South St., 215-336-2000.

—Sam Adams