*** Lucy Kaplansky

TEN YEAR NIGHT

(Red House)

Gals with guitars are the music-biz flavor of the month, selling millions of albums with their coy, dewy-eyed, melisma-drenched navel gazing. Lucy Kaplansky has a guitar and writes her own tunes, but her dark lyrical vision and anti-hysterical delivery set her apart from the typical art-damaged MTV waif of the month.

Ten Year Night could easily be construed as a concept album, since most of the tunes deal with the disordered thoughts and fragmented emotions that haunt the human heart between dusk and daylight. The scenarios may be familiar -- two lovers in a darkened car hurtling down an empty midnight highway, lonely people in empty rooms trying to recognize the stranger in the mirror, the aching loss of a parent or a lover, the slow realization that satisfaction comes from inner peace rather than love, liquor, or money -- but Kaplansky's ability to flesh them out with a few well-chosen images or a poignant minor-key melody is remarkable. The subtle arrangements balance alterna-country and folk rock with a bit of pop sheen, but the spotlight always stays on Kaplansky's warm, full-bodied alto and her straightforward phrasing.

-- J. Poet

(Lucy Kaplansky performs this Saturday. March 27, at the Emerson Umbrella in Concord. Call 978-369-4127.)