Natalia Zukerman

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However, Zukerman's is no case of musical cloning. Same genes? Yes. Same genres? Nope. While it may be true that as the twig is bent, the tree inclines, Zukerman's bent has been to create music that is quite a departure from the classical style of her parents. As she says about her "Song for Ramblin' Jack" (Elliott), her inclination has been to be "a part of this grand tradition of troubadours that is, for me, as much about my own family of traveling musicians as a shared American history."

Her music embodies both those grand traditions. You can hear the classical training and discipline in her striking and inventive guitar work. This lady has serious chops! You can also hear the whole range of American roots music, blues, country, jazz, and folk in her songs and singing. And speaking of singing, it's another area in which she's diverged from her pedigree. Though her sister, Arianna, is an opera singer, Zukerman's voice is closer to early Bonnie Raitt and is perfectly suited to convey the whole range of her writing — from the sardonic ("Like a house wants to be haunted/Is this what you wanted?") to the evocative ("When winter goes it's like a toothache that finally subsides") to the mysterious ("When milk, ice, and sugar get together,/They whisper secrets you should never tell").