Called a “curmudgeon” by many critics, Cheryl Wheeler admits that “I recognize that there is a certain irascible quality about me.” Maybe that’s why her music speaks to everybody’s twin selves: the good and the bad, the sensitive and the ugly, the warm and the cutting. Audiences appreciate both the lovely sentimentality of her lyrics and the hilarious bite of her songs.

Wheeler is a gifted and openhearted songwriter, a poet and a comic. During her early gigs at the Steak and Ale in Titonium, Maryland (where she grew up), she had to compete with a PA system that would break into her songs to call people to their table. Having mastered such a challenging environment, she moved to New England and became a mainstay in the acoustic music world. Now she’s one of the biggest draws on the folk music scene.

“Defying Gravity,” Wheeler’s latest CD, has been heralded as a “portrait of a performer and composer continuing to discover rewarding new avenues in her finely-developed craft.” This is her first recording in six years, and fans have been celebrating since its release. The disk contains raw, emotionally intense songs that speak to everyone’s dark night of the soul as well as a couple of Wheeler’s comical ditties that make you chuckle and smile in knowing agreement.

As great as Wheeler is on disk, she has to be seen to be fully appreciated. Come for the music, come for the comedy, come to be moved. (And, pssst, come early to get a good seat.)