Lhasa

Sat., Feb. 5

Every year around now, trudging through the slush and cold of another New York winter on that hamster wheel of my daily commute, I get urban cabin fever. Before long, I'm coming up with plans for various elaborate lifestyle readjustments straight out of the Utne Reader: retreating to a Buddhist monastery upstate, apprentice myself to an organic farmer in California, maybe go spend a few months rebuilding temples in Thailand. I've never considered running away and joining the circus, but when Lhasa de Sela needed to regroup after a punishing touring schedule, that's exactly what the Mexican-American singer did.

The leap is not so dramatic when you consider her upbringing. The child of nomadic hippies, she spent her early years in a converted school bus with her parents and three sisters. The family musical troupe crisscrossed North America from San Francisco to Montreal, and by age 13 de Sela was on stage, unveiling a voice that would eventually capture a worldwide audience with the 1997 release of the mournfully seductive disc La Llorona. Sung in Spanish, with cross-cultural musical influences melted together, the lyrics lament the darker side of love: "I've come to the desert to laugh at your love/The desert is more gentle, and the thorn's kiss is better."

Lhasa traveled extensively in Europe and North America in support of the album, yet despite success on the road, she took a break from music to create and perform in a show under the Big Top with her already circus-performing sisters. When that tour ended, she was ready to take up her chanteuse persona once again.

The result is The Living Road. If subtler in delivery than La Llorona, the songs also demonstrate a deepening. This time around, Lhasa shifts her smoky, lyrical delivery between Spanish, French and English, refraining from the sensuous wailing that marked her first disc. The vocal lines are most often intimately hushed or staccato daggers, with arrangements stripped down to the barest accompaniment. The tonal language has shed some of its verbose, multi-culti character as well-less gypsy-camp pantomime, more reflective femme fatale.

Lhasa will be onstage at the world-music club Satalla as part of a multi-city sweep through the U.S.

Satalla, 37 W. 26th St. (betw. 6th Ave. & B'way); 212-576-1155; 7:30; $25, $20 adv.