Lady Dottie & the Diamonds Lady Dottie & the Diamonds
(Hi-Speed Soul)

For decades, it's been hard to make blues rock not sound like stodgy self-parody. To overcome genre inertia, musicians typically have to go way over the top, like the early Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, or strip it way down and get gimmicky, like Bob Log III. Tackling blues rock head on now usually comes across like the sonic equivalent of the Hard Rock Cafe experience: tacky, ersatz, dispiriting.

San Diego's Lady Dottie & the Diamonds (featuring Dorothy Mae Whitsett and members of out-rockers Gogogo Airheart) eschew postmodern angles on this hoary musical style and simply plow into it with a straightforward zeal that could curl Jon Spencer's hair and turn the Black Keys pale.

Sexagenarian Lady Dottie is a Sharon Jones–like dynamo who puts singers half her age to shame with her bawdy bravado and Tina Turner–esque huskiness. She came up out of Alabama's gospel-choir tradition and has transferred that JEE-ZUSS-inebriated frenzy to the secular, profane arena of blues-based garage rock. Hallelujah! The five men backing her up play these well-worn grooves and riffs with profuse love and intensity.

The disc's first three tracks will have you feeling rode hard and put away wet. "I Ain't Mad at Ya" is vicious garage rock that rivals the Yardbirds' scorchingest rave-ups. "Come Along Together"'s raucous, barrelhouse-blues rock stings your ass while inspiring you to shake it, with cutting guitars, turbulent organ swells, and rapidly rolling piano uplifting like Howlin Rain's overdriven, god-beseeching testaments. Lady Dottie & the Diamonds' rendition of Richard Berry's 1959 hit "Have Love, Will Travel" is an id-boiler par excellence. The pace slows toward the middle, as chestnuts like "Wang Dang Doodle" and "Walking the Dog" get covered with utmost competence, but the album climaxes spectacularly with a storming version of The Jeffersons theme song, "Movin' on Up." Ow! Your blues done got exploded.

Lady Dottie & the Diamonds perform Tues Oct 28, Sonic Boom Records (Ballard), 6 pm, free, all ages, and Tues Oct 28, Funhouse, 9:30 pm, $6, 21+, w/the Bluesuasions.