By JUD COST

Looking like a strong Idaho wind might blow her off the bandstand, Eilen (rhymes, appropriately enough, with "feelin'") Jewell proved to be the toughest girl in the joint at San Francisco's Rickshaw Stop the other night with her high-shelf blend of western swing, folk, blues, lounge jazz, honky tonk and Americana. The transplanted Boise native, now hanging her beret in Boston via Santa Fe, NM, has a stop-you-dead-in-your-tracks voice uncluttered by vibrato or any sign of trumped-up, American Idol-style emotion. Jewell, who's never had a vocal lesson in her twenty-something years, is the real deal. The only singer who comes to mind with a set of pipes so deliciously uncomplicated and self-assured is '50s/'60s jazz songbird June Christy.

Launching her 90-minute set by wheezing into a harmonica rack for the Dylan-ish intro to "Rich Man's World," Jewell proceeded to hit all the high terrain of her recent second album, Letters From Sinners & Strangers (Signature Sounds): from the sweltering moan and slinky tempo of "Too Hot To Sleep" to the dripping-sink irony of  Charlie Rich's "Thanks A Lot" and the Bob Wills/Dan Hicks-like, Jewell-penned romp, "Heartache Boulevard"—a tune that should rocket into the country charts if there's a scrap of justice left in the music biz (there isn't!).

Scattered outbreaks of dancing permeated the room, whose rickshaw parked in the corner, two-toned parquet floor and ceiling-high burgundy drapes had some patrons expecting to see David Lynch's diminutive "man from another place" appear from behind the curtains. But Jewell's three-piece backing band—drummer Jason Beek, upright bassist Johnny Sciascia and superlative guitarist Jerry Miller (not the Moby Grape fretboard wiz, but every bit as good)—provided all the surrealism needed tonight, as they transported the modest-sized crowd to some backwoods Kentucky roadhouse, circa 1955.

As Jewell wrapped up a program that, in addition to her breathtaking originals, included a pair of Loretta Lynne nuggets, one by Eric Anderson and another by Billie Holiday, you couldn't help but feel you were in on the early days of something truly memorable.