Erin McKeown"s quirky, folksy music weds the intimacy of the coffeehouse circuit with the braininess of her daytime gig as an ethnomusicology student at Brown University. Accompanying herself on guitar, piano, banjo, and the odd sampler, this precocious Virginia native has crafted a winning album of original songs that range from the coy minimalism of "Queen of Quiet" to the genuine beauty of "How to Open My Heart in 4 Easy Steps." McKeown infuses her songs with a droll wit and a keen awareness of jazz, blues, and Tin Pan Alley traditions (how many 23-year-olds cover Rodgers and Hart"s "You Mustn"t Kick It Around"?). With its echoes of Gillian Welch, k.d. lang, Suzanne Vega, and the Handsome Family, Distillation is an eclectic collection of mostly upbeat tunes that play nicely while the barn is burning. --Bill Forman