Live at KVIE Studios

Back in the ’60s, when Bob Dylan was first exercising his penchant for fucking with clueless journalists, he answered a guy who asked him to name his favorite poet by offering the name of Smokey Robinson. As was so often the case with Dylan, no one was quite sure how to take him, but it’s become clear since Dylan made that comment that there’s poetry to be found in popular music, though one has to sort through lots of dreck to find the gold. There’s more than a little gold to be found in this latest Blame Sally release, recorded live at Sacramento PBS station KVIE. Take, for instance, the sharp and piercing insight in a song like “Her Name is a Knife,” a metaphor that almost literally cuts to the quick. And then there’s the richness of feeling in “Orange,” a song a mother writes for her daughter. It just might make you cry. Or try the power of a song like “Countdown,” a poem of fierce resistance to power. There’s also poetry in the interplay of instrumentation and vocal harmonies, and in the blending of the band’s sound with the sense of the songwriter’s lyrics. Looking for powerful aural poetry? Blame Sally.

Blame Sally performs Tuesday, Sept. 18, 7:30 p.m., at the Sierra Nevada Big Room.