Catie Curtis, Natalia Zukerman
Old Centrum
Friday, May 4, 8 p.m. $17/$20

It’s become an annual spring tradition. Mark Butterfield’s Acoustic Café series brings singer/songwriter Catie Curtis to town; she performs at the Old Centrum and we fall more helplessly beneath her spell. Since the mid-90s, this Boston-based singer has been producing one fine album after another, each one a beguiling mix of ballads, urban folk and loving testimonials to relationships, family and patriotism. There isn’t a cynical bone in her repertoire body; in a voice that varies from dynamic to hushed to what I call her “smilevoice,” Curtis sings about life and love in simple, wise and humble ways.

She’s toured with artists like Dar Williams and Richard Thompson, and her songs have appeared in the TV shows Grey’s Anatomy, Dawson’s Creek, Felicity and Alias, and films such as 500 Miles to Graceland and A Slipping Down Life.

Curtis is touring in support of her most recent CD, Long Night Moon, whose track “People Look Around,” a wrenching song about post-Katrina New Orleans, was nominated for Song of the Year through the North American Folk Alliance. But it’s the track “Passing Through” that most exemplifies Curtis’ alacrity at singing from the heart: And I wonder sometimes what will I pass on/How much can one voice do with just a song/Sometimes injustice and indifference are all that I see /But I refuse to let my hope become the latest casualty/So I’ll sing of love and truth and try to practice what I preach/If I can’t change the world, I’ll change the world within my reach.

In her live performances Curtis creates a cozy atmosphere; she laughs, jokes, self-deprecates; she tells stories; she brings us up to date on her growing family. Last year she got on an audience member’s cell phone to talk to an Indy fan that couldn’t make it to the show. We’re all part of the family now.