Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday

ETTA JAMES

RCA Victor

The one-time queen of blues bluster dialed it back for this intimate — albeit very bluesy in a jazzy sorta way — all-ballads homage to Lady Day. James' singing is still brawny on such landmark tunes as "Don't Explain," "Lover Man," "Body and Soul" and eight others, but she digs deep into the lyrics, and is buoyed by some lovely, spare arrangements.

This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2006.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...