I last reviewed a Leslie Evers recording, I Can't Remember My Dreams, in this space on 27 September 2014. It met my approval, and I wrote about it accordingly. If I'm not mistaken, this is her first new album in more than a decade.

To refresh my memory after listening to Bound for Land, I looked up what I had to say about My Dreams. While my recall was a tad hazy -- I've written about hundreds of CDs since -- it was pretty much as I thought it was: a sound largely familiar but put together in not quite anticipated fashion. In fact, this one is more of the unique same, except perhaps more so.

Evers's roots are in jazz-pop of the sort one encounters in the American Song Book. One thinks of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins and the like: melodic songs one might hear, at least in their initial iterations, on stage and in up-scale saloons. The lyrics are romantic and intelligent, the tunes sophisticated. There is something else, however: an enchantingly spare, acoustic production consisting at maximum a seven-piece outfit (once), but mostly between one (Evers on guitar) and two or three others. Thus the path is cleared to put the focus on Evers's tranquil and assured vocals.

Notwithstanding some stylistic overlap, I wouldn't think of Evers as a particularly folk-based singer-songwriter. Nonetheless, among those credited for bringing the album to fruition are Andrew Calhoun, Jody Stecher, Joe Newberry and bluegrass mandolinist John Reischman, all longtime figures from a scene that seldom pays much attention to formal jazz-pop. There is even a kind of oldtime spiritual, the superb "Along the Rocky Way" which, if an Evers original, carries a sound echoing the pre-20th century. It's one of the strongest neo-folk songs I've heard so far this year.

The opening cut, "Pull Your Heart Again," accidentally borrows a melodic snatch or two from a Roches tune whose title I am not sure I recall ("The Hammond Song"?), no doubt because it's been a while since I've heard the sisters. Aside from that, the Roches were largely celebrated for their harmony singing, of which one hears counterparts, if sporadically, and not at the same intensity level. Not that it matters; there are, after all, only so many chords to be put together.

Even the finest albums aren't perfect, but for what it sets out to do, this one is about as close as one is likely to get. Not a single cut fails to provide pleasure. Bound for Land is mostly reflective, mostly meditative on love, sometimes loss, once in a while straying into something like religious territory, moving relationship material out of hackneyed feeling while keeping a straightforward narrative. It reminds us that one doesn't have to sound stupid to sing about popular song's most worn subject. The creators of the American Song Book managed to create adult love ballads. Other composers though not as famous have followed suit, among them Evers, who stands tall in this high company.