The Oregon singer and guitarist Zsuzsanna Ward creates songs that could best be described as blues-pop: snappy melodies that she strums and sings over in a creaky, smoky, soulful voice. Ward’s debut album, this month’s Til the Casket Drops, features such worldly tracks as “Put the Gun Down”—a modern day “Jolene”—and the paean to sexy nerds, “Move Like U Stole It.” The record also features two collaborations with Freddie Gibbs and Kendrick Lamar. Ward’s hip-hop influences first were made clear on her Eleven Roses mixtape, for which she commandeered a few very masculine rap songs, singing her own words over the original beats. Wiz Khalifa’s “Rooftops” became Ward’s “Morphine”; Tyler, the Creator’s “Yonkers” became “Better Off Dead”; and Childish Gambino’s “You Know Me” was morphed into the steely “OVERdue,” on which Wards accuses, “I can smell the bullshit on your breath/Got it written from your toes to your neck.” With Yellow Red Sparks. ERIN K. THOMPSON

Mon., Oct. 22, 8 p.m., 2012