TIME Canada Arts: Pick of the Week

Even Canadian women get the blues sometimes. But a couple of new CDs from two singer-songwriters let us hear how just good the blues can be, especially if you mix it up a bit with some generous borrowing from other genres.

Treasa Levasseur's Not a Straight Line is an eclectic melange of blues, jazz, funk, rock, and even a subtle note of country. Consistent throughout are Levasseur's fresh lyrics and mature storytelling. In Solitary Man, the most straightforward blues number on the CD, Levasseur sings of a man with "a hole in his heart about five miles wide." The singer would be his "sweet remedy," but the sad truth she tells us is that even though he says she's "so lovely, she could get a guy high," there's no rescuing him from his despair. In the title track, we meet a physicist and the lover who doesn't speak his language of numbers and infinity. A country song, Nickels and Dimes, introduces us to a woman trying to account for the cost of a love that isn't showing much return. "She wonders where all of the interest went/ She knows it won't break her, but it sure leaves a dent." Learn to Let Go is more philosophical than narrative, but who knew Buddhist thought had so much jazz and funk in it? The CD is an impressive achievement for the 32-year-old Torontonian, who spends her days traveling in a van full of instruments making house calls to teach music to children.

Roxanne Potvin is only 23, but she has already made a name for herself as a blues singer and was able to attract Nashville-based singer-songwriter Colin Linden to produce her second album, The Way It Feels. (Her first was self-produced, self-financed and released from her hometown in Gatineau, Quebec.) Linden plays guitar on most of the songs, and there are many other guest appearances, including Bruce Cockburn, John Hiatt and Daniel Lanois. What drew such a constellation of stars to such a young singer? While Linden's influence certainly helped, Potvin's range of talents was also clearly a draw. She sings powerful and sexy covers of blues classics like Joe Tex's I Want To (Do Everything For You) and Lowman Pauling's Say It. And her own compositions, such as the jazzy While I Wait for You and the retro '50s-ish Caught Up (performed with Memphis Horns founder Wayne Jackson, who played with Elvis and Aretha Franklin), showcase her songwriting skills. Her quiet duet with Daniel Lanois, in the waltz La Merveille, is a heartfelt tribute to her Francophone heritage.