All Night Boogie Band, 'Angel of the Airwaves' 

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• All Night Boogie Band, Angel of the Airwaves

(Self-released, digital)

Born in the University of Vermont basement-show scene, All Night Boogie Band honed their craft playing around Burlington for a few years before releasing their first LP last summer. An impressive debut, Taste These Blues showed glints of jazz, R&B and soul. But it's a blues album through and through, from the cover art that resembles that of the classic Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton to the version of Elmore James' "Shake Your Money Maker" that closes the album.

With their second LP, Angel of the Airwaves, All Night Boogie Band have lived up to the promise of their debut. The group has delivered a versatile record that remains steeped in its blues roots while pursuing new stylistic frontiers with which Taste These Blues merely flirted.

Like the first album, the group's sophomore effort is primarily composed of originals written by lead guitarist Brendan Casey with lyrical help from lead singer Jessica Leone. Despite the persistent influence of blues giants such as Muddy Waters and James on their songwriting, Casey and Leone seem less intent here on aspiring to the whiskey-soaked anguish of the Mississippi Delta or midcentury Chicago. The result is, as advertised, a blues album that you can boogie to, one filled with the upbeat zest of big-band jazz and the hopeful lyricism of gospel and soul music.

The record opens with "Yes I Am," a swinging roadhouse number that ramps up to a stomping gospel chant. With a powerful belt, Leone laments her struggles and wonders, "Am I built for this fight?" before announcing, "Yes, I am. Yes, I am." The call-and-response seems to encapsulate the lyrical sensibility of the entire album in its declaration of strength and resolve in response to hardship.

The following track, "On the Road," is an energetic romp that sounds not unlike Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" if it were written and sung by a seriously pissed-off Susan Tedeschi. On these early songs, Casey displays impressive chops with and without a slide in his hand, making him an admirable Derek Trucks to accompany Leone as he and the group's prodigiously talented keys player, Van Garrison, bust out dueling solos.

The album cools off with a few slow burners, the best of which is "Don't Come Around Here No More," a breakup tune with a seductive horn arrangement. On the whole, the horns are better and bolder on Angel of the Airwaves than on the band's debut. That's especially true when they're grooving as they do in the group's penultimate track, a cover of Danny Barker's "Palm Court Strut," bringing to mind the swinging brass section of Fleetwood Mac's Mr. Wonderful.

Featuring extended scorchers from both Casey and Garrison, closer "Listen Up Boogie" confirms a suspicion that the listener harbors from the album's outset: Though there's some remarkable instrumental prowess on display throughout the record, this is a band you're going to want to hear live.

Angel of the Airwaves is available now on all major streaming platforms. You can catch the group at the fourth annual Salvation Farms Aid Benefit Concert on October 28 at the Double E Performance Center in Essex.