In Blood

Holly Golightly (her real first and middle name; her last name is Smith) started out as one of the singers in Thee Headcoatees, before breaking out on her own. The cover of this 1999 album bears the legend “One Chord! One Song! One Sound!” and indeed, the songs are bare-bones, stripped-down blues vamps over which Golightly and Childish chant straightforwardly declarative lyrics in something that’s not quite unison but not quite harmony, either. The rhythm section consists of bassist John Gibbs and, of course, Bruce Brand on drums, with occasional harmonica from Johnny Johnson, and they prove that what this music is all about is a bouncing beat, which they’ve got and then some. A relatively subdued record — Childish is practically crooning at times, and Golightly is a singularly pleasant presence — In Blood offers a dozen takes on what philosophers refer to as “the man-woman thing” that will keep your head nodding and your foot tapping.