LESLIE AND THE BADGERS

Leslie Stevens sings with a light, gently nasal lilt that sounds much more like Oklahoma than like her native Los Angeles, calling to mind Iris DeMent and other country chanteuses. You may have seen her and the four Badgers opening for Rhett Miller at the Independent earlier this month, and if you did, you heard Stevens supported by fiddle, acoustic strums and lap steel. Her lyrics are clever but heartfelt, quick on their feet while evoking wood-paneled rooms and draft beers.

KEVIN SEAL