NO RULES Rebecca Lynn Howard (Saguaro Road Records)

Range, color, power -- Rebecca Lynn Howard's got them. Her new disc, "No Rules," is a sampler showcasing her vigorous singer/songwriter talent. The first three cuts are soul-saturated R&B, with gospel-style chorus and old-school organ, horns, harmonica, and bass. And she proves her chops on country/pop, contemporary, honky tonk, and blues reminiscent of the great Rory Block ("One as Two Can Be").

Howard doesn't plow new ground but what she's spaded into is fertile. A couple of real charmers are "Sing 'Cause I Love To," a twangy lope about the joyful music jams her parents hosted on Saturday nights when she was a kid, and "Life of a Dollar," a sweet tale of what a buck means to the dozen or so folk who possess it for a while.