Susie Blue & the Lonesome Fellas sends you back to an older era in music. The Chicago blues band's playful sound will keep listeners grooving in their seats, and while the eponymous "Susie Blue" has a stack of musical influences, she has a robust sound that's all her own -- and she makes you sit up and listen with her style.

Susie Blue is Solitaire Miles, who has already established her singing credentials in jazz and blues circles. The Lonesome Fellas are Neal Alger on guitar, Howard Levy on harmonica, Tom Hope on piano, Don Stille on Hammond organ, Chris Bernhardt on bass, Eric Schneider on sax, Jack Gallagher on trombone, Phil Greatteau on drums, Paul Abella on cajon, and Jen Zias, Mike Harvey and Saalik Ziyad on backing vocals. Dominic Halpin shares lead vocals on "Forever Yours."

Backed by a tight, muscular lineup of musicians, Miles puts equal measures of sass and sweetness into her songs, a sultry and sophisticated presentation that takes frequent advantage -- lyrically and aurally -- of the railroad theme. The blues here is sprinkled liberally with country, jazz, rock, rockabilly and western swing influences, and the package is at all times a cohesive one. Nothing feels out of place.

The album has 16 tracks, and each is a solid addition. Personal favorites tend to vary with every replay, changing to suit my mood, focus, time of day and whatever's in the glass beside me. Even so, tracks including "Big Sweet Baby," "Forever Yours," "Hummin' to Myself," "Blue Train" and "She'll Be Gone" tend to float to the top.

I confess, I didn't even know that "The Peter Gunn Theme," written in 1958 by Henry Mancini for a TV show, had lyrics. (They weren't original to the song, but were added in 1964 by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans and recorded the next year by Sarah Vaughan.) Miles certainly does them justice here.

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