Something in this city calls to Australians—and that’s not just more OffBeat-brand civic boosterism. The secret romance of the port city, no doubt, not to mention something to do with pirates and the ability to establish a separate outcast identity apart from a rather prudish mainland.

Dublin-born singer-songwriter Mary Jane Guiney has been perfecting her torchy blues-based ballads in Sydney, but when she visited NOLA she found a kindred spirit in Walter “Wolfman” Washington and several of the Roadmasters, including bassist Jack Cruz, who recorded an album with her a few years ago under the very appropriate name Mary Jane With Jack Cruz & Friends.

Stay True appropriates what seems like all of those songs, extending and remixing them to bring out their jazzier overtones and adding another coat of polish with newer, slightly more accomplished vocal tracks. The portrait of Mary Jane as a rootsy party gal on the Seven Days album has been slightly modified to funky chanteuse, but her instrument remains the same, and it’s impressive: brassy without being overbearing, sultry without seeming cheap. The general focus of her songs is about what you’d figure from that voice—seductive, earthy, and upbeat—but her new friends work wonders with the setting, giving the old title track a Latin snap and some straight blues to mess around with on “Woman of the Night.” Mary Jane’s approach isn’t quite what you’d expect from either New Orleans or New South Wales, but thanks to Cruz’s airbrushed funk, you can bet it brings in the sailors.