This is the album we almost didn't get. Blues belter Candye Kane spent all of 2008 fighting off pancreatic cancer, a deadly forms of cancer that she says kills most of its victims within six months. Now, cancer free, she is recording and doing road shows once more, and I, for one, could not be happier.

Superhero shows us one tough woman, a fighter, who comes out of the gate swinging. The title song, which kicks off the CD, is an anthem to conquering the forces that threaten to drive you down, as is the second song "Toughen Up." These are songs she wrote while she was sick, songs she sang to help herself through the darkness. They work, and not just on the level of self-help. They are tunes as strong and tough as the woman who wrote them.

The rest of the material is just as strong in a different way. Kane doesn't spend the whole album celebrating her renewed health; she brings us a wonderful blues album, containing jump blues tunes that sound like they could have been done in the 1940s, a Chicago blues tune written by Willie Dixon, a song that brings Sam Cooke to mind and some fine ballads. Her voice is flexible and supple, equally capable of selling a slow song and bringing home an uptempo rocker.

Here's what it boils down to: buy this one. You won't regret it.