Fri, Aug 20, Emily Wells

SoCal singer Emily Wells has a siren song of a voice—lilting and high-pitched, beautiful and hypnotic. But, often, what she actually sings about defies expectations. Take, for example, her cover of the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy.” Here, the hip-hop classic is slowed and stripped down to a series of sexy, soothing beats. Her own compositions are just as interesting. “Whiskey and Rags,” for example, sounds like a forest sprite doing a cabaret act in a strip club. Wells, who is classically trained, gives all her music similar treatment, coating simple folk songs with symphony-worthy samples and beats until the final piece is grand, orchestral and beautifully unclassifiable. 129 E Street in Davis; www.myspace.com/emilywells.