Normally, I would have been annoyed at a show starting 35 minutes late, but since I’d gotten myself lost (of course) on my way to The Mint Thursday night, and wasn’t there promptly at 8pm anyway, it wasn’t such a big deal. And I was really looking forward to its all-female lineup, starring Elana James and the Continental Two, and featuring Amy Farris and Brandi Shearer, so I was relieved to learn I hadn’t missed anything, despite convincing myself that I’d missed the turn onto Fairfax and driving in the wrong direction for two miles.

Brandi Shearer proved herself to be a promising young talent with a great sound and great look, but unfortunately lacked a connection with the audience - I didn't feel like I knew her any better at the end of her set than I did at the beginning.

A very pleasant surprise was Amy Farris, who started her set with a Bruce Robison song, so you know I loved that. An exquisite fiddle, mandolin, and acoustic guitar player, Amy sounds a lot like Bruce’s wife Kelly Willis, whom she’s provided instrumentation and harmony vocals for. She also performed a bunch of songs she wrote with Dave Alvin for her Anyway CD, so you know the stamp of genius was all over those. Go see her when she performs at the Cinema Bar next month – she’s a doll.

Although the first two artists suffered from poor acoustics that often drowned out the lead singers’ voices, the sound guy got it right for Elana James and the Continental Two, after much correction during soundcheck. Elana James (formerly Elana Fremerman of The Hot Club of Cowtown) was certainly no disappointment. Having struck it out on her own, she’s making music and performing just as good, if not better, than her Hot Club days. The bluesy throatiness of her voice and her growing confidence on-stage make her a both playful and seductive artist, but the real star of Elana’s show is her fiddle-playing, which is quite simply…mad. Assisting the virtuosity of her show were the fantastic sidemen Whit Smith and Beau Sample, making this “new” trio a “can’t miss” act.