[Featured image by K&D Photo + Video.]

“Energy and emotion is a universal language in music” said Dana Abbott, the Frenchmen Street soul-rock powerhouse who celebrates the release of her latest album Moonlight (with the Dana Abbott Band) at d.b.a. tonight.

The album is technically rock ‘n’ roll, but, as Abbott noted, “rock ‘n’ roll really doesn’t seem to cover the category. It’s like it’s own thing… it’s not punk, it’s not R&B, it’s New Orleans rock ‘n’ roll. I don’t even know how to put it. It’s us.”

New Orleans rock is definitely its own animal, a subset of rock Abbott describes as kind of like old-school R&B, but mutated into something markedly more belligerent.

“It got a little aggressive, a little edgier somewhere down the line,” she said, thinking out loud. “It went off the meds. Old R&B off the meds-that’s perfect!”

But what drives the rollicking energy and makes Moonlight, as well as Abbott’s live performances, so compelling is the profound, intrinsic sense of empathy.

“I care a lot about people,” she said. “And I think, musically, that’s kind of my quest, to figure out…how to make people feel cared for? And loved. With strangers, somehow.”

“Not like, you know, huggin’ a tree, but really and truly feel cared for,” she continued with a grin. “Because… that gets so lost in this world. These days especially. I think people get scared in showing that. I’ve recently dealt with loss, in a very tragic way, and it’s one of those things that you can’t take back. It’s so important to see the beauty that’s out there when there’s so much that’s going on that’s fighting against it. I can’t change the world, and I can’t change the horrible things that are happening in it, the only thing I can do is try to put as much beauty as I can back into it.”

The sentiment comes through in every performance she gives, in a way that’s direct, moving, and totally void of triteness. Her shows are fun, and they’re exuberant, and they’re totally made for dancing. They’re also unapologetically heartfelt. It’s a depth of emotion you can’t fake.

“If I’m up there, my entire objective is to make people feel alive,” Abbott explained. “I have to be at my utmost, um, I don’t know how to say it… electric self?”

If it seems like it would be straining to be ever-electric no matter the song or circumstance, she doesn’t seem to have much difficulty transporting herself to a place where not only does what she’s singing mean something to her, but she can translate it to a bar full of strangers as well.

“I’ve always been able to connect through a song even if it doesn’t make sense in my life,” she says. “Like, I can attach something that makes me earnestly feel it. That’s what I think, well, people have told me, that they’re drawn to. And what I’m drawn to. Anybody who’s really in the moment.”

Although Moonlight–featuring Adam Baumol, Eric Bolivar, and Eric Heigle on drums; Jordan Gonzalez on guitar; Scott Jackson on bass; Dom Grillo on sax; Kevin Lurkins on trumpet; and Dave Brisson on keys and as a songwriter (new band members guitarist Dave Freeson and drummer Colin Davis will play the release party)–was born of a leisurely, eight-month-plus recording process and impeccable production at Parlor Studios, the band’s raw vitality and sense of being fully present in the now persist throughout.

Perhaps it’s because of all the passion behind the album, or, as Abbott maintains, Parlor Studios’ wizard-engineer Eric Heigle and his effortless ability to flesh out their ideas and highlight the nuances (bizarre little sonic whimsies and all) without compromising any energy or emotion.

“He’s phenomenal!” she said. “He’s got that sense to him. He really does. He has such a great ear for production!”

And also, she laughed, dealing with artists.

“I don’t know how to communicate anything!” she said. “I had something I wanted to sound like someone squeaking their mustache. That’s just, well, I mean, to me that’s a very specific sound. Some vaudevillian tone to it or something. And Eric, he just picks it up, man.”

They recorded the album analog, which Abbott has always been attracted to for its grittier, dirtier sound (“Oh, the beautiful dirt!”)

“This album is really us,” she said. “It’s what’s really and truly our hearts and souls. Warts and all. And it’s taken this band for me to really finally get to this level.”

The Dana Abbott Band will be playing it live tonight at 10 p.m., along with other tunes and performances by special guests!

(Note: Dave Freeson’s name was misspelled in original article. Article changed to reflect correction, 4/28/2015.)