*** Martha Schuyler Thompson

THE SOUND MUST LEAVE YOUR THROAT

(Cottage Industry Music)

Oregonian Martha Schuyler Thompson's powerful, expressive voice grabs you first; it's a suggestive, growling cross between Rory Block's blues mama and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's new-age keening that seems to channel some otherworldly dimension on original folk ballads like "Snowfall" and "The Leaves." But for every ethereal "Spirit World," Thompson has another foot rooted in the musical and lyrical present, where she mines the peaks and valleys of the domestic front -- marriage and parenthood -- for eloquent testimonies to the unspoken heroism of daily life.

It helps that the thirtysomething singer/songwriter is a deft acoustic-guitarist backed by a versatile band with piano, organ, and a killer rhythm section. The dozen tunes betray her musical roots in her Motown-era native Detroit and in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where she spent her teen years. The kickoff track, "Mess of This Place," could well be the sexiest song ever written about housework -- an exuberant bit of folk R&B that will forever change the way you look at daily chores.

-- Seth Rogovoy

(Martha Schuyler Thompson plays Club Passim this Sunday, February 9, at 3 p.m. as part of a songwriters-in-the-round program.)