Carla Bozulich's Evangelista

Artistically restless and full of surprises, Carla Bozulich never occupies one spot for too long. The cathartic abrasion of the singer’s 1990s band, the Geraldine Fibbers, was a bid for truth and beauty amid Bozulich’s intense delivery of soul-wrenching, confessional dramas. More recently, a project built around Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger won even the bandana-wearing legend’s approval as it explored gentler facets, sans the usual sonic disruptions you’d expect from a band that featured longtime musical partner (and current Wilco guitarist) Nels Cline.

On the road again, Bozulich is touring with a new outfit, Evangelista, which marks a return to storm-tossed expression. As she promises on her website, “Evangelista is a sound that you can open your chest with, pull out what’s inside and make it change shapes…’til the sound inside has finally sealed the hole where your vile/beautiful heart belongs.” The same-titled album, recorded in Montreal with members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, A Silver Mt. Zion and Black Ox Orkestar, among others, lives up to bold imperative. Tracks such as “How to Survive Being Hit by Lightning” unfold like some psychic phenomenon, as Bozulich’s voice materializes out of an improvised wash of feedback, ambient buzzing, viola melancholia and country-blues guitar fragments. It’s music that is at once demanding and strangely comforting.

Live, Evangelista features a rotating cast of regulars drawn from New York and Montreal’s out-rock and improv scenes. Given Bozulich’s lifelong commitment to uninhibited performance, tonight threatens to alter your blood chemistry.—Steve Dollar