Boston-based, Philadelphia-raised Vance Gilbert is one of the warmest, most infectiously entertaining singer-songwriters performing in America today -- that rare artist for whom people actually lean forward as eagerly in their seats between songs as they do during them. His catchy melodies are supported by keenly crafted, hard-hitting lyrics; his guitar work is supple, and his rich tenor, honest and gently acrobatic. Vance does not duck hard truths and never succumbs to the temptation to wrap his points up into neat platitudes, whether he's expressing the wrenching separation suffered by single parents, the tug between love's desires and its demands, or the bitterness of being marginalized by a Eurocentric culture. Last year he released a new album of great originals, Unfamiliar Moon.