Artist:     Ashleigh Flynn & The Riveters

Album:     Live From the Blue Moon

Label:     Home Perm Records

Release Date:     6.15.21

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The “best in show” award goes to Ashleigh Flynn & The Riveters for the rollicking concert LP Live from the Blue Moon, recorded at the 50th annual Oregon Country Fair. As the sassy unofficial queens of sunny Americana for the event, they did their namesake, that World War II symbol of female empowerment, “Rosie the Riveter,” proud.

Raised in Kentucky on pastoral bluegrass and soul/R&B from the heart of the city, Flynn went solo initially, earning heaps of praise as a Southern-accented songwriter and performer. Eventually, she hitched her wagon to a red-hot, all-woman band that could handle anything the celebrated songwriter threw at them, from vintage roots music to the country-rock psychedelia of Laurel Canyon. Together, they’ve shared stages with the likes of the Amy Ray Band and the HawtThorns, and Live from the Blue Moon is a glowing, spirited hootenanny that gives the people what they want. And that is, simply put, a rip-roaring good time.

With dancing accordion adding warm, creole flavors to the mix, energetic, high stepping runs through a brisk “How the West Was Won,” “The Sound of Bells” and “Fly Away,” the latter driven by locomotive rhythms and zipping electric guitar, get carried away on a euphoric release of endorphins. Their rousing, jumping version of 1964’s Buck Owens & Harlan Howard-penned “Tiger by the Tail” is even faster and more enjoyable, setting the stage for a slightly more relaxed, countrified version of Tom Petty’s “American Girl” that’s headed for a soaring conclusion and closes the show.

Getting to the end of Live from the Blue Moon is more than half the fun, though, as a strutting “Big Hat, No Cattle” bumps along, coyly skewering phony urban cowboys playing dress-up, and the infectious, harmonica-infused “Deep River Hollow” comes on like a runaway train. Slowing down for the somewhat wistful and liquid “Too Close to the Sun,” as good a pop song as Flynn’s ever created, the record doesn’t stop for stragglers, as “Shrouded Sun” starts off soft and quiet but picks up the pace nicely. This Moon is full.

—Peter Lindblad