To come up with songs for her new album, Lou Ann Bardash did something brave: She didn’t write using the instruments she knew best. As a budding songwriter, she always composed on the piano. At Southern Illinois University, her instrument was trumpet. For many of the songs on her new collection At the Vortex, though, she switched to guitar—something she says forced her to loosen up as a musician and a songwriter.

”It gave me freedom,“ says Bardash, a singer and songwriter who worked for years on Music Row before starting a label, NSR Sound Recordings, with partner Tom Ovans. When she wrote on piano, Bardash explains, she was much more concerned with structure. Her relative inexperience on guitar forced her to rely more on grooves and intuition. ”I’m so trained in everything else,“ she says, ”and I’m just winging it on guitar.“

The reliance on rhythm comes through on At the Vortex, recorded in Nashville with Ovans, engineer Robb Earls, and a shrewd assortment of backing musicians that includes Edwin McCain guitarist Larry Chaney, Lambchop percussionist Allen Lowrey, Steve Earle bassist Kelley Looney, and Wilco/Courtesy Move drummer Ken Coomer. The record’s 11 tracks are typified by rolling acoustic grooves, in some cases pared down to just bongos, guitar slaps, and Bardash’s slurred, smoky, syncopated vocals.

With the full band, Bardash’s rhythmic singing can lapse into irritating mannerisms. When she extends ”away“ into a five-syllable word on ”People Come,“ she sounds like she’s singing on horseback. But on a cover of ”Blues ’n’ Booze“ featuring only the singer over Dennis Taylor’s saxophone, Bardash’s percussive vocals give the track a snaky pulse. Throughout the record, she exhibits good taste in her handling of other people’s material: Leonard Cohen’s ”Tower of Song“ is reborn here as a shambling waltz that threatens at any moment to tip over into the gutter.

Bardash’s own songs split between introspective mood pieces and character studies such as ”Sophie Frankenstein,“ an intriguingly Spartan obit for a 95-year-old woman whose near-century of life boils down to a couple of lines and the vague recollections of a cousin. Some were composed on the spot out of direct experience—the record’s first line, ”Sometimes I’m filled with irritation/Past the point of placation,“ was penned while the fuming songwriter was stuck in traffic.

Bardash says she had no problem finding inspiration for material. ”You name it, I’ve done it,“ she laughs. The Illinois native arrived in Nashville in 1981, and she wangled a succession of jobs in the music industry, from working with the late Dale Franklin at the Nashville Music Association to transcribing interviews for journalist Robert K. Oermann. She sang in the Nashville Opera chorus; she taught voice lessons. She performed for nursing-home residents. She sang covers of ”Sweet Home Alabama“ and ”Heartbreak Hotel“ at a women’s prison. (”Talk about a tough audience,“ she says.)

Bardash met Ovans in 1987 when he asked her to sing on a tape of his. They’ve been together ever since. In 1991 Ovans decided to release his own records, and Bardash used her years on Music Row to help him start NSR Sound Recordings. At the Vortex is the label’s fifth release. ”We revolted against the whole music-industry idea,“ she says. ”We’re a self-made organization.“

But not exactly self-promoted. When Ovans has a record coming out, Bardash is the one who calls all the media outlets. This was Ovans’ turn to call on Bardash’s behalf. ”I was always the peddler,“ she laughs. ”Tom’s making calls now because people know who he is.“ Check local record stores for At the Vortex, or write to NSR at P.O. Box 120783, Nashville, TN 37212.

Even though Nashville indie labels release hundreds of records each year, from rap to roots-rock to jazz, it’s safe to say that White’s Creek-based Imaginary Records is the only one that has issued a full-length score for an Asian ballet. The label recently released Kaki, a ballet commissioned by Bangkok’s Company of Performing Artists, which premiered the piece last July in a command performance overseas. It was written and recorded (under the name ”Sun Valley Virtual Symphony Orchestra“) by Somtow Sucharitkul, a Los Angeles-based composer from Thailand who writes science-fiction and horror novels under the name S.P. Somtow.

Imaginary founder Lloyd Townsend, who started the label 17 years ago in Auburn, Ala., to showcase area rock bands, says that the release is somewhat atypical for his imprint, which these days concentrates on contemporary jazz. He simply met Somtow at a science-fiction convention several years ago and kept in touch over the years. The music on Kaki may be disappointingly tame to connoisseurs of Eastern exotica, due mainly to the many synthesized instruments, but the burbling melodies meant to evoke a sensual queen and the Ganges River are subtly entrancing.

Imaginary has also released Hexaphony, a live 1977 improvisational performance in Manila by Somtow and composers Dnu Huntrakul and Bruce Gaston. For more information on Imaginary’s catalog, send e-mail to townsend@imaginaryrecords.com.

WRVU-FM, the Vanderbilt campus station known to listeners as 91 Rock, has a remarkably strong schedule this semester. Alongside longtime favorites like Traci Todd’s Sunday-afternoon bluegrass show, the Wednesday-drivetime ”91 Soulsville“ R&B program, and Karina Bull’s Monday-night lounge party ”The Mad Pad,“ 91 has nestled the city’s most adventurous rap, funk, folk, jazz, and indie-rock programming in slots throughout the week.

Just as cool are the category-defying wild cards scattered throughout 91’s schedule, such as Brian Boling’s ”Let’s Go Bowling,“ which mainlines anything from found recordings and occasional interviews to dauntingly obscure punk nuggets every Sunday night at 10 p.m. In a few weeks, we’ll sing the particular praises of 91’s exceptionally good country programming—including Friday morning’s progressive ”Blue Plate Revolution,“ which demonstrates how a true Americana radio format might actually sound. But for now, it’s worth dropping by the Sarratt main desk or calling 322-7625 to get a printed schedule. Or just tune in to 91.1 FM and take your chances—advice we wouldn’t apply to the pathetic majority of Nashville’s radio stations.

Exotica fans may want to catch a whiff of The Perfumed Garden, a Nashville band that blends Eastern and Asian musical influences. Clarinet, violin, tablas, hammer dulcimer, and a sitar-tuned guitar form the musical lineup, augmented onstage by two belly dancers. Other dancers are encouraged to show up and participate. The group performs next Wednesday at the new Victor/Victoria’s, which after only a couple of months in business is already just as bizarre as the old one.

Elliptical dispatches: Decca country artist Chris Knight, artist-songwriter Gretchen Peters, the Nashville String Quartet, and host Joanna Cotten perform at 8:30 Saturday night at Jack’s Guitar Bar to raise funds for WDCN-Channel 8. The reason for the show? Club owner Jack Sawyer just likes PBS’s programming: ”If you had a TV without WDCN,“ he says, ”you’d lose about 20 IQ points.“ Tickets are $12....

The rumors are true: Longtime Exit/In booker/manager Bruce Fitzpatrick is indeed reopening Elliston Square, the small rock club located behind Obie’s Pizza. Fitzpatrick says he’ll book underground, punk, and indie-rock bands—in other words, the kind of groups that made the club a cool hangout in the late ’80s. It may be up and running by the end of the month....

Speaking of changes on Elliston Place, Nashville’s biweekly hip-hop/R&B/poetry showcase The Spot relocates to the spruced-up Exit/In starting Sunday night. At this edition, the Scott Hallgren Trio plays piano-based jazz and Khan performs poetry. As always, DJ cool.out mans the microphone; any poet, singer, or rapper can sign up for the open-mic segment; and you’ll have to bring a name for the mighty house band. The show’s at 7 p.m., but get there early if you want a seat....

Of the dozens of acts we saw during Extravaganza week, one of the biggest surprise pleasures was Calypso, fronted by three teenage Williamson County girls with punky appeal and sloppy energy to spare. (We like to think of them as The Feminine Complex ’98.) They’re playing on a bill Saturday night at the Cannery with several other bands, but you shouldn’t miss the instrument-swapping of bassist Shawna Potter and guitarist Beth Cameron, the intense concentration of guitarist Currey, and the walloping beats of drummer Brent Summers....