For your listening pleasure we present a tri-bill featuring Danielle Miraglia, Abi Tapia and BettySoo. Danielle Miraglia is a beautiful charismatic woman with a sexy voice. This heart-on-sleeve storyteller has an innate sense for melody. Her voice bends and sinks and floats in all the right places, with a raspy, whiskey bottle scrape most reminiscent of Lucinda Williams. Abi Tapia, after several years in Austin, has recently relocated to western Massachusetts. Her third album, The Beauty in the Ruin, released last year, tells Abi’s stories about all that life has to offer from her viewpoint. Texas based BettySoo, a tiny, second-generation Korean with a big voice and heartfelt songs, brings a repertoire of folksy roots music that remind many of Patty Griffin.

A strong steady thumb on an old Gibson guitar is the driving force behind Danielle Miraglia’s delta blues influenced guitar style. Add a raw, powerful, whiskey tinged voice and one might be tempted to label her a blues artist. But while Miraglia’s style pays homage to these blues traditions, her classic rock verve, catchy melodies and eclectic array of song subjects that range from deeply personal to socially relevant give it an original twist that is all her own. A fresh sound along with a sharp wit and a captivating stage presence is gaining her fans all over the map.

Raised just outside of Boston in Revere, MA, where its famous beach is better known for girls with big hair than its history as a popular tourist attraction, Miraglia was raised on a variety of popular music, from her parent’s Motown records to the classic rock influences like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin that encouraged her to learn to play guitar at thirteen. A passion for the arts and an outstanding gift for writing lead her to Emerson College in Boston’s downtown theater district. After graduating with a degree in Creative Writing, she put her writing skills, originally intended for novels, towards songwriting and began performing at open mike nights in the Boston area. This set in motion what would become a full-time career in music.

In 2001, she released her debut EP, Bad Poetry, followed by a second release, Just Wrong Enough, in 2002. From there the songs poured out and the gigs flowed in. Since 2002 she has headlined some of the most renowned blues and folk music venues in Boston, toured major cities from north to south and beyond, while earning street cred vigorously busking the streets of Harvard Square. Her latest self-produced release, Nothing Romantic, has received rave reviews.

Photo of Danielle Miraglia by Gina Mancini Horan

Abi Tapia smiles big when she sings. She can’t help it — she’s having so much fun. But in the world of independent music, where it’s hip to be tortured, she sometimes feels like a Pollyanna. Abi undoubtedly gets her optimism from her mom who was expelled from Catholic School for being pregnant with her, but called it “the best day of her life.” Abi’s first fifteen years were a blur of Southern towns and yearly uprooting as her mother chased work and higher education, eventually earning her Doctorate in Music and a job as a college professor.

Following her nomadic childhood she attended college in Iowa, where she was a Sociology major at Grinnell College, and began her professional music career while living in Portland, Maine. But Abi found herself attracted to the sweet twang and straightforward approach of country music so she migrated to Austin, Texas in 2002, where she quickly rooted herself in the city’s thriving live music scene. Along the way she picked up awards and recognition for her songwriting from The Wildflower Music Festival, Austin Songwriters Group and the Kerrville Folk Festival. The inviting warmth of the South, the expansiveness of the Midwestern Plains, the pluck and determination of a New England Yankee and a Texan’s independent spirit all come together in Abi’s “wanderlusty” music (a term she proudly displays on her guitar strap).

Tapia’s 2005 release, One Foot Out The Door, a driving collection of songs about loving and leaving led to a touring life playing legendary listening rooms like Club Passim, The Bitter End, The Bluebird Cafe and Eddie’s Attic, while other nights she sang her heart out in crowded living rooms, libraries, or under a gazebo on a sprawling Texas ranch. 2008’s The Beauty in the Ruin explores sadness and frustration, which after 8 years of the starving artist’s life Abi had plenty of, but there is a common thread of hope, redemption and joy in all of these supposedly sad songs.

Change is good. Sometimes, you just need a little shake-up to get things to how they always ought to have been. With Heat Sin Water Skin, BettySoo adds some welcome edge and grit to the heartbreaker ballads and bell-pure vocals she’s come to be known for. Teamed with seasoned producer Gurf Morlix (Lucinda Williams, Mary Gauthier, Slaid Cleaves), BettySoo has made a record worth sitting up and paying attention to. Her vocals are striking, the players strong, the sound gripping, and the lyrics compelling.

Her first studio efforts (Let Me Love You, 2005; Little Tiny Secrets, 2007, Never the Pretty Girl EP, 2007) were well received by critics, earning praise locally and nationally — even securing her performance opportunities overseas. And she’s not slowing down any time soon. Since their release, she has earned multiple songwriting awards (including Kerrville New Folk, Wildflower Festival, and Big Top Chautauqua Songwriter of the Year) and has proven herself a strong emerging live performer. She’s still nestled in the folk-rock world, but she is bringing something new to her listeners. “There’s a little gospel, some straight-ahead folk, a bit of twang, and maybe even a familiar oldie with a new twist. Be ready for a surprise.” Then again, almost everything about BettySoo is surprising. People are taken aback just to see her take the stage. Plain-faced, petite (clocking in at exactly 5 feet), and freckly, people don’t have any idea what to expect — they certainly don’t expect such a large voice and moving songs. “I guess Asian-American singer-songwriters aren’t that common,” she comments, “at least, not in Texas.” And, of course, there’s the whole issue of her name. How did a second-generation Korean end up with such a classic southern name? Is it a stage name? “No,” she answers, laughing, “I guess I’m just lucky that way. It’s right there on my birth certificate. Soo is my dad’s middle name, too. Yep, he’s a boy named Soo.”

Danielle Miraglia’s country/folk/blues sound descends in large part from Mississippi John Hurt, and she is a worthy carrier of that guitar-picking tradition. Her voice, reminiscent of Bonnie Raitt’s, is strong but vulnerable, feminine but never precious, with a gutwrenching catch to it. Her guitar playing is both accomplished and soulful, and her songs tap into the ur-melodies and fundamental chord changes that form the essence of western music, while still saying something in a distinct and original voice. Jon Sobel

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[Abi] Tapia’s style of Americana is warm and inviting, as she tells stories about all that life has to offer from her view point. “How It All Started” is about the beginning of one’s life, following high school graduation and looking at a car or bus as an opportunity to get out of town and find . . . something. “Sorry” has her singing about someone who may have done her wrong but knowing (or at least hoping) “that there’s a heart beating in your chest/that you would tell the truth.” Tapia could easily become a blues belter in the vein of Bonnie Raitt or a less threatening Paula Cole (or at least I don’t think Tapia will be doing any beatbox routines anytime soon). Her music is very vivid, and maybe it’s because I’m a fan of storytelling songs, I want to join the artist on that journey or at least meet them halfway. It’s very accessible to the country and pop markets, and I hope this gets a bit more coverage so people will be able to not only find out about Tapia, but appreciate where she’s coming from and where she’s about to head in her life and career. John Book, The Run-Off Groove

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BettySoo simply stands out. The Texas native claims to be a bit of an oddity in the folk scene, but it’s got nothing to do with her height (5′) or her ancestry (Asian-American) — it’s all about her music.

Her latest album, Heat Sin Water Skin, perfectly showcases her clear soprano voice and her songwriting abilities (she’s won multiple awards including the Kerrville New Folk, Wildflower Festival and Big Top Chautaqua) in a mix of pop, folk, country and even a tiny hint of gospel.

With her vocals in When You Whisper My Name, BettySoo could pass for Alison Krauss’ twin sister.

And whether she’s singing about a relationship as comfortable as a old, worn-in pair of jeans (What We’ve Got) or from the perspective of a woman feeling trapped in a marriage with lines like “this ain’t no love tale, like Johnny and June” (Forever), the best tracks come out simply, without pretense.

The final highlight is her take on Hank Williams’ “Lonesome Whistle.” The rendition is sincere enough to make you forget that she’s a regular Twitterer and instead ponder how on earth she’d ever end up behind bars before contemplating the wonderful songs she might come up with before her sentence was finished. Nichole Wagner, UncommonMusic.org