There’s nothing I like better than a woman who can really make some noise, and without the benefit of artificial smoke or spandex. I got a double dose at the 2013 Rhythm and Roots Festival over the Labor Day weekend in Charleston, Rhode Island. It’s one of my favorite festivals, and I’d been away too long.

Yvette Landry with ace fiddle player Beau Thomas, who showed up later in the day playing with Roddie Romero. He was everywhere. (Jim Motavalli photo)

I minored in female vocalists at the College of Musical Knowledge, but I had never heard of Yvette Landry. I’m making up for that now. She opened up the Sunday festivities and, as the announcer said, the festival is all about cajun and crawfish, but Landry is a honky tonker.

In fact, she’s the whole package, a great singer, a great songwriter, and the leader of a band tighter than a drunk in a brewery. Of special note was fiddler Beau Thomas, who just locked into the groove and never let go. Landry, who is an educator and children’s book author, with two CDs out, is well worth checking out. She specializes in pungent done-me-wrong stories, and they really go down easily.

Jim Motavalli, WPKN