Like jazz vocalist Sheila Jordan, folksinger Rosalie Sorrels can make you feel she’s touched life so deeply–and paid her dues so courageously–that she is as personally inspiring as the artistry she brings to her music. The sly sophistication of her vocal phrasing–a countrified fusion of Billie Holiday and Patsy Cline laid over dreamily melancholy acoustic strumming–be- speaks an adventurousness that both embraces and transcends western folk roots; meanwhile her reedy Idaho twang brings a sense of sturdy realism to even the most complex material. Sorrels refuses to shy away from the despairing or the politically incorrect; in fact she seems to find hope, and even redemption, by embracing the very contradictions and torments that less courageous commentators might avoid. She draws from a wide spectrum–everything from traditional prairie ballads to beatlike meditations on contemporary urban despair–and through it all she graces the listener with a rare sense of power, dignity, and hard-won optimism. Friday, 8 PM, Mont Clare Congregational Church, 6935 W. Medill; 728-7409 or 889-8174.
