YVA LAS VEGASS

To say Yva Las Vegass has a unique point of view is putting it mildly, and there’s no room for mildness where she’s concerned. The native Venezuelan moved to Seattle as a teen and roughed it as a street musician, battling homelessness and addiction. After performing at a birthday party for Krist Novoselic, she played with the Nirvana bassist in the short-lived Sweet 75. Here it’s just Yva and her four-string cuatro, an instrument she uses to accompany her alternately strained and gorgeous vocals. The handful of English lyrics deal with drugs, racism and alienation, but the ideas translate even in Spanish. Gasping, flailing and unfailingly soulful, she’s the Nina Simone of the wild-eyed panhandlers.