If Joe Goldmark is a master of the pedal steel guitar, his mail is delivered at a different address from the one you'd expect -- in other words, nowhere near Nashville or Texas. He's lived in San Francisco since he moved there from his native Tucson in his high-school days. He was around to see the fabled San Francisco Sound bands in their prime. Fittingly, he was attracted to the pedal steel when he watched Jerry Garcia playing as a guest member of New Riders of the Purple Stage. In other words, it wasn't Ernest Tubb & the Texas Troubadours.

Still, though Goldmark's musical education in the rootsier side of mid-century popular music is in evidence, there is still a gratifying selection of hard-country tunes, including a scintillating reading of the Lefty Frizzell classic "Look What Thoughts Will Do," with vocal by Dallis Craft. Otherwise, the cover tunes feature blues numbers by Rufus Thomas ("All Night Worker") and Jimmy McCracklin ("The Wobble"), both sung by Glenn Walters. Craft applies her impressive interpretative skills to the pure pop of "A Love So Beautiful," a Jeff Lynne-Roy Orbison collaboration cut by Orbison late in his career. Frankly, I admire the courage of any singer who takes on an Orbison tune. That takes not just guts but chops. Craft (with Goldmark's excellent backing, of course) does fine.

Mostly, though, Blue Steel is Goldmark's distinctive-sounding instrumentals. Since my knowledge of the instrument owes in its entirety to my hearing it just about as long as I've been on this Earth, I can tell you only, and perhaps unhelpfully, that he produces a sound that sounds, well, curvy, akin to a drive on a winding, beautiful road that takes you places that you may not anticipate but that will always delight you. Along the way he conjures up ghosts of Hawaiian, surf, hillbilly, r&b, blues and rock, though it requires attentive listening to discern just where these gorgeous notes come from. Even if you don't know anything else, you'll be happy to be along for the ride.

If with Joe Goldmark country (or at least a country instrument) is a point to start, for Sarah Patrick, Kentucky born, it's the destination. The Woman I Am is hard country of the sort one instantly associates with Loretta Lynn: pure unadulterated honkytonk with a blue-collar feminist edge. Country musician and 1970s hit-maker David Frizzell produces in a fashion that presumes, correctly I hope, that in 2018 there's an audience for country music without bombast but with recognizable humanity: strong point of view, good humor, swinging arrangements, relatable stories and emotions.

Three of the dozen numbers are Patrick originals. They manage to stand up respectably alongside songs by Lynn, David Frizzell, Lefty Frizzell (who was David's older brother), Curley Putman and other seasoned country composers. I especially like Patrick's bold, sexy "I Ain't No Angel," a declaration of a honkytonk woman's right to her own choices, no apologies or explanations. She also knows her way, which is in charge, of country evergreens like Loretta's "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)" and Lefty's "That's the Way Love Goes."

Unlike most of her contemporaries, Patrick isn't reinventing traditional country. She's taking it on its own terms and making it fresh and, I guess you'd say, Patrick-ian. If only you could still hear this kind of music in actual joints where the lights are dim, the smoke is thick, and the music is loud. So lift a beer glass to a gifted artist who, if we're all lucky, will make it happen.