Dev'lish Mary

The Hot Club of Cowtown’s third album is another set of hot jazz, trad fiddle tunes, and American Songbook standards interspersed with a couple of original tunes, one each by the band’s co-leaders: fiddler/singer Elana James and guitarist/singer Whit Smith. Some of the tunes are quite familiar, not to say hackneyed: “Devil’s Dream,” “Star Dust,” and “Little Liza Jane” have all been done to death — but never like this, with the Hot Club’s unique springy rhythms and headlong tempos. And both Smith’s and James’ singing is a dream.