To say Rupa Marya’s two worlds don’t merge would be inaccurate: the life of the hipster Bay area vocalist, and that of the busy hospital doctor. Witnessing firsthand inordinate amounts of suffering has to make it to her lyrics; so does the joy and togetherness that tragedy fuels. Her band’s follow-up to the unique debut, eXtraOrdinary rendition, este mundo, continues both her penchant for lowercase letters, not to mention the Gypsy, Indian, French, and Latin American musical influences. Her fishes make accordions sound great; her French recalls memorable chansons heard round the world. San Francisco has long been a cultural simmering pot with innumerable ingredients, and she has taken the best of intimate club music and churned it back out, globally. Brilliant, all of it. Marya is a presence, tender yet voracious. She honors day laborers, women crossing borders, falling in love, even overcoming life’s trouble spots, the latter with a cover of an old Columbian cumbia, “Soledad.” “Soy Payaso” pays tribute to the Indian raga, starting off with Bansuri and tabla before getting a tequila kick into hyperspeed with klezmer accordions and muted trumpets. “La Linea” is the band’s study in reggae, with an especially melodic hook and reliable low end. Marya started writing “L’éléphant” the week she got married; she finished the tune when the marriage ended eighteen months later. It pays tribute to the Indian philosopher Krishnamurti, one man never for the flowery adornments of religious blather; Marya too cuts to the point on this brilliant song. You start to lose track of where one culture ends and another begins: her point. Healing day and night, Rupa Marya continues to produce local medicine that spreads worldwide, with minimal carbon footprinting to boot.

This review will run in the Spring 2010 issue of Sing Out!