Billboard CD reviews: Puppini Sisters, Maceo Parker

ARTIST: THE PUPPINI SISTERS

ALBUM: THE RISE & FALL OF RUBY WOO

NEW YORK (Billboard) - The three music school grads in this daffy London-based trio have a longer memory than their demographic peers in the Pipettes. Rather than revive the sounds of '60s-era girl-group pop, the Puppini Sisters bring back the close-harmony '40s-era stylings of the Andrews Sisters, precarious hairdos and all. As on their 2006 debut, "Betcha Bottom Dollar" (which featured a killer version of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights"), the Puppinis mix period material with radically reworked takes on more recent pop fare, including the Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" and Beyonce's "Crazy in Love." The latter's good fun, but the album's highlight might be "Old Cape Cod," the dreamy Patti Page hit that Groove Armada memorably sampled in "At the River." Sound like a gimmick? It is. But it's a good one.

ARTIST: MACEO PARKER

ALBUM: ROOTS & GROOVES (Heads Up)

The first half of the legendary saxman's two-disc live set with Germany's WDR Big Band is a rollicking tribute to Ray Charles. The second half goes -- and let's turn it over to Maceo Parker here -- "Back to Funk," and the two sides demand, with equal ferocity, that you get out of your chair. Parker says early on that he's long dreamed of doing Charles tunes with a big band, and his enthusiasm is nearly thick enough to grab a handful of: "Hallelujah I Love Her So" leaps and dances, while "Busted" and the obligatory "Georgia on My Mind" strike a nearly perfected level of simmering soul. And with the big band, nuggets like "Shake Everything You Got" and a sprawling, kitchen-sink take on "Pass the Peas" works up a mighty lather in each of its 17 minutes and 48 seconds.

ARTIST: CARRIE NEWCOMER

ALBUM: THE GEOGRAPHY OF LIGHT (Rounder Records)

Though this is her 11th Rounder album, you could be forgiven for thinking of Carrie Newcomer as a newcomer herself. The singer-songwriter is deeply rooted in her native Indiana, and she finds artistic inspiration and personal comfort in the Midwest. She may be a regional artist, but she has a universal vision and appeal. Her pure, pitch-perfect voice has a slight huskiness that conveys the "heart" in heartland, and she surrounds herself with skilled musicians who augment her with richly textured piano, percussion, violin, cello, banjo, ukulele and the occasional English horn. The songs reflect her varied interests: spiritual, literary, philosophical, environmental, charitable. Though there's a seriousness of purpose here, she also displays a flair for the whimsical on "Don't Push Send," about the dangers of impulsively written e-mail.