“That’s a Pretty Good Love” is the opening song on the first full album from Lulu and the Broadsides—the gritty quintet fronted by Dayna Kurtz—that sits at the intersection of Etta James and King James. That’s King James of New Orleans’ Special Men, not the royal translation of the Old and New Testaments. The bumpy, bouncy grind of the song and the band’s over-eager shouted responses to Kurtz’s lusty calls do not exactly bring to mind a Sunday choir. Well, she does sing “I swear to you on the Bible,” with Robert Maché’s raunchy guitar, Glenn Hartman’s churning keyboards and the locked-but-loose tandem sound of bassist James Singleton and drummer Carlo Nuccio—a New Orleans all-star lineup—lurching heavenward in this transformation/sanctification of Big Maybelle’s horn-fueled 1956 R&B flip side. 

So the other King James does get a nod here, tangentially at least, with a cameo in a yearning version of Nick Cave’s non-believer’s prayer, “Into My Arms”: “to walk, like Christ, in grace and love.” And there’s something, well, holy about the way Kurtz’s sly “Ice Cream Man,” a parable of temptation if there ever was one (“Oh damn you’re dreamy, but you’re a little… too…. cold”) melts right into a down ’n’ dirty turn on New York blues woman Mamie Minch’s “Razorburn Blues”—though that leans more Old Testament, perhaps.

So yeah, singer-songwriter Kurtz’s alter ego Lulu is preaching in a juke joint, not a church. But the joint is consecrated ground, a sacred space where unbridled dancing—both rowdy and roaring, tender and tight—is witness to the glory of life and love. It’s where Cave and Iggy Pop—and even the moderately obscure 1980s hard-psych trio Masters of Reality (a bawdy, shimmying version of their “Magical Spell” closes the album)—are honored saints alongside the R&B greats, and where Kurtz readily, spiritedly calls on through her big, richly expressive voice. But it’s also where Kurtz’s deft, playful, heartfelt (all at once) songs and singing present their own life-won wisdoms—from the punchline of “Everything’s Bigger in Texas” to the observations (“Love is both a mirror and a door”) from her Western swinger “Take My Advice.”

And, not to take the analogies too far, but how about a hallelujah for the band? With credits from the Continental Drifters to the New Orleans Klezmer All Stars to Astral Project, from rock to funk to the free-est of free jazz, these guys can and do play just about anything and everything. But here they make sure your feet and hearts are always moving. Peaks are many, but to single one out, you can picture Kurtz just standing aside, a big grin on her face, as the ensemble stretches out into the dark hypnotic swirl of Iggy Pop’s “I Need Somebody,” with Hartmann’s roiling organ at the center. Yeah, that’s a pretty good love.

Lulu and the Broadsides perform on the Lagniappe Stage at Jazz Fest on Saturday, April 30, at 4:15 p.m.