A Belgian firecracker recently based in New Orleans, Ghalia Volt idiosyncratically embraces the American South’s indigenous blues. Her intentionally raw third album, One Woman Band, is boldly minimalist and musically intriguing.

Following recording sessions in New Orleans for Let the Demons Out and North Mississippi’s hill country for her Mississippi Blend, Volt recorded One Woman Band at the historic Royal Studios in Memphis. True to the album’s title, she simultaneously sings and plays slide guitar, drums and tambourine. Although bassist Dean Zucchero and guitarist “Monster” make a few contributions to the album, One Woman Band usually is a one-woman show, co-produced by Volt and Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell (Buddy Guy, Al, Green, Solomon Burke, Anthony Hamilton). 

The album opens with “Last Minute Packer,” a blues-rock song that pairs Volt’s pleasingly husky voice and impressive range with loud, distorted electric guitar and pounding, no-frills drums. A reverb fan, Volt drenches her slide guitar and Southern-country-sounding singing in the echo effect for “Espìritu Papàgo.” The latter song’s psychedelic boogie suggests the reverberating, “doomy” atmosphere of J.D. Miller’s Excello recordings of Louisiana swamp blues-artists Slim Harpo, Lazy Lester and Lightnin’ Slim. The heavy reverb also permeates the psychedelic rock of Volt’s “Bad Apple.” 

Juke joint swagger animates “Evil Thoughts,” a song likely to lure rock-stepping dancers to the floor. Beyond its danceability, the song features engaging melody and chord progressions. In the slow-dragging blues of “Meet Me in My Dreams,” Volt hits some notes reminiscent of Janis Joplin.

Volt’s Louisiana influences manifest themselves in “Just One More Time,” a good-time song redolent of such local R&B stars as Bobby Charles and Fats Domino.