Singer-guitarist Erin McKeown astounds at the sold-out Tin Angel

With each album, Erin McKeown - singer, composer, guitarist - has found bolder ways of blending brooding jazz, sprightly surf, tangy country and twangy folk into one swiftly spun sound.

Pretty great for someone we thought would wind up as singularly dull as Tanya Donnelly.

Yet for McKeown to effortlessly distill those forms and more into wholly original cover versions, as she did throughout the first of two sold-out Tin Angel shows Thursday night, was astounding.

Whether laying down slinky guitar lines or bashing out punky ones, McKeown, a spunky 29-year-old with short, upswept hair, seemed to bounce on her heels.

She attacked a hyperactive "Paper Moon" with a high-life rhythm and traded diabolically melodic licks with pumping organist Eric Deutsch through a grooving "Get Happy" that would have made Judy Garland smile.

McKeown was far from perfect, and that was part of her charm.

With drummer Allison Miller stomping behind her, McKeown sloppily turned "I Was a Little Too Lonely (You Were a Little Too Late)" into a rollicking, Stones-y mess.

She laughed when whistling through jazzy songs like "Coucou," and botched notes when pushing her slight voice to encompass Doris Day-like warmth and Anita O'Day-like dynamics.

That nonglossy element of McKeown's charm can't be underestimated. It turned corny, "daft-as-a-daisy" lyrics conversational and made the syrupy sentiments sensual. McKeown-penned songs ("James") took on a more cinematic elan. And every note was effortlessly ticklish.

McKeown may have blown "Just One of Those Things" by eschewing Cole Porter's melody for something blandly psychedelic and spacey. But that she could turn around and make Fats Waller's woozy "If You a Viper" and her own stoner "Blackbirds" cocktail cool and sweetly low-down likely would have made Cole proud.

Crooner-strummer Sean Hayes opened the show with quaintly folkish tunes and quivering vocals that sounded like a cross between Jeff Buckley and a chicken. That's a compliment.