Mose and Amy Allison

Mississippi-born Mose Allison epitomizes hip white-guy cool. He’s everyone’s favorite singer’s favorite singer, with a pedigree that stretches back to the 1950s, when he first began recording, sharing stage and studio with Jack Kerouac’s adored jazzers Zoot Sims and Al Cohn, and the great Stan Getz. Allison’s seductive and easygoing style came as his natural birthright: Mississippi is the land of the blues, and this performer has it in his blood. It’s a charm to melt the heart of even the surliest bastard. Like, say, Van Morrison, who recorded an all-Mose album a few years back.

The old man is back on the road again, this time sharing tour bills with his daughter, Amy. Perhaps the pairing was inevitable, but it certainly seems like a rare and happy occasion. Like her father before her, the vocalist has become a fixture in clubs that attract a focused fan base—especially in New York, where she’s flirted with the local alt-country scene and recorded for the otherwise shit-kicking Diesel Only label. Her singing often is likened to offbeat warblers like Victoria Williams, and it’s well matched to her batches of funny, observant, smartly turned songs.