It's all that, and it's pretty to listen to too.

The instrumental accompaniments are light to nonexistent, as Rivkin's voice is the prime instrument here, bolstered by those of the excellent Maria Quiles and Rebecca Crump (who together with Rivkin comprising the group Making Waves). Rivkin sings her angular melodies in a voice that switches easily from soft to sharp. Where the other voices jump in, the sound becomes more universal and more exotic at the same time: discrete moments could have come as easily from a North American roots-revivalist group like the Be Good Tanyas as from an exotic, arty hitmaker like the Bulgarian Women's Choir.

Her lyrics, for the most part, manage to be both pointed and poetic. Political music is hard to pull off, especially if it's not satirical, and, except in "Welfare-to-Work Blues," which is musically creative and elegant but lyrically forced, Rivkin accomplishes the difficult task very well. "See Through Bush" is clever and light-handed and the more cutting thereby; the Spanish-language "Sobrevivientes" raises a fist of musical beauty against oppression; and the chant-like "Taking Our Freedom" deepens its message with hypnotically intense music while personalizing it with a dollop of family history.

The non-political songs are rewarding too. Rivkin's reflections on love and its accompanying troubles range from the imagistic ("Little Silver Packets," "River & Volcano") to the painfully explicit (the Outmusic Award-winning "Ya Eyo Lublu"), and, unlike most lyricists, who are at home only in one mode or the other, Rivkin can convince with words both clouded and clear.

Russ Rentler, Scarecrow's Lament

The new disc by Russ Rentler, who was an early bandmate of the folk stars John Gorka and Richard Shindell, is really three CDs in one. First, it boasts three beautiful instrumentals: two traditional tunes and an original, in which Rentler's consummate skill on a wide array of stringed instruments (too many to name, but dulcimers are prominent) takes center stage. Then there are the humorous songs, including "New Car Smell," which has been heard on the syndicated NPR show Car Talk, and the autobiographical (and hysterical) "One-Eyed Grandma." Finally there are thoughtful and earnest songs of love, family and the ways of the world.