Having captured the sassy sounds of those early female R&B singers from the forties and fifties as shown on their first album, Cursed, Bad Luck Woman & Her Misfortunes have now incorporated that sound into some strikingly good original material plus a few more rarely heard covers. Raha Javanfar and her remarkably effective girlish voice leads an extremely well-rehearsed band in a splendid set of three-minute vignettes. We got a taste of this on their 7” single release from last year and “It Ain’t Gonna Happen Again” leads off here. The other side, “Morning Comes Too Soon” is here too. The first single from the album is the title cut. “(Truth is a) Cruel Thing” is an incredibly fast tale of two friends falling out. My choice for the next single would be “Bigger Fish to Fry”, our singer lists all her troubles, and there are a lot including the fact that her boyfriend has left her. She thinks she should be more upset about this last one but then decides against it, with perfect comedic timing. “Stormy Heart” and “Morning Came Too Soon” show a more serious side but are just as effective. The concluding “I Love My Baby, But… (He Claps on 1 & 3)” goes back to that lighthearted sound with a tale of a night at the Cameron House when she discovers her partner can’t dance. There are some nice sound FX on this one. Of the older songs Carol Fran’s Excello single “I Quit My Knockin’” is my favourite with Raha’s fiddle solo and this answer song runs right into Little Richard’s “Keep A Knockin’”. Raha plays bass & fiddle, Fraser Melvin handles lead guitar and takes the fine vocal on “I Can’t Do Without You”, Jonathan Hyde plays drums and Andrew Moljgun plays saxes and keyboards. They all contribute background vocals and percussion. This band plays regularly about town, just check the listings page for a wonderful evening out. Raha Javanfar is also our host for the Maple Blues Awards evening at Koerner Hall on Feb. 3 – a perfect occasion for comedic timing. The web site is www.badluckwoman.com.