By Ann Driscoll
Associate Editor

As a violinist and background vocalist, Joan Wasser has toured and performed with some of the most critically acclaimed artists in recent memory: Rufus Wainwright, Joseph Arthur, Antony and the Johnsons, Lou Reed, and Jeff Buckley. Buckley was her longtime boyfriend and rumored fiancé at the time of his tragic death in 1997. Buckley fanatics take note: according to the David Browne’s biography Dream Brother, she inspired one of his greatest love songs, “Everybody Here Wants You.”

Now the front-woman of her own solo project, a trio dubbed Joan As Police Woman, the Brooklyn-based Wasser has stepped out of the shadows of the acts she supported in the past and the rock lore surrounding her personal and professional life. Having toured Europe continuously over the past three years, Wasser is in the midst of a U.S. tour in support her second solo release, To Survive. She came to the Middle East in Cambridge on Wednesday, September 24th and packed the 250-person capacity venue.

Supported by drummer Parker Kindred and alternating between a Wurlitzer and a hollow-bodied Guild, Wasser captivated the adoring audience with her harmonically and melodically rich soul-tinged pop. Her chord progressions frequently modulate and take twists and turns that excite rather than befuddle because of her confident grasp of form and the centered, 16th note-dominated grooves she and Kindred create. With a degree in classical violin from Boston University, her cadenza-like vocal phrasing reached virtuosic heights. The result, however, is emotional rather than showy, anchored by the gravity of her distinctive alto and the earnestness of her lyrics, which primarily concern love— desired, felt, and lost. In a cultural era of suffocating irony, Wasser’s unabashedly sincere lyrics seem especially potent.

Wasser brought undeniable charisma to the stage. Sporting an enormous Afro wig, a black jumpsuit, and cowboy boots, Wasser looked like a heroine from a Blaxpoitation movie. On anyone else it would have looked ridiculous or gimmicky, but Wasser is such an unselfconscious personality and the blood of 70’s black soul flows so audibly through her veins that she pulled it off in style. When she performed a re-harmonized cover of the Hendrix classic “Fire,” she sang “Move over Rover, let Joanie take over.” It was easy to imagine that a new rock legend was being born before our very eyes.