Eilen Jewell, one of the best up-and-coming female musicians on the scene these days, has recently released Sea of Tears, to rave reviews. A Boston-by-way-of-Boise singer/ songwriter, Jewell is a young artist loaded with both talent and promise. Opening act Jeremy Lyons is a favorite of the Crescent City club scene who relocated to Boston after Hurricane Katrina. Lyons features fleet fingerpicking on a stinging slide guitar while churning out rock-solid, caffeinated swing rhythms on playful originals, standards, and the deepest swamp blues.

Eilen Jewell has quickly distinguished herself as one of the rising stars of a new generation of roots musicians. Her first two albums, Boundary County and Letters from Sinners and Strangers were astonishingly assured efforts, which matched Jewell’s understated yet insightful songs with a rugged blend of Americana styles. They were met with a great deal of acclaim, with No Depression raving that “Jewell is showing she can wander with the best of them, and write riveting song-stories about her adventures along the way.” Indicative of Jewell’s strong following in Europe, The Word in the UK described her as “A voice of real distinction [that] manages to transcend some powerful influences and pierce the fog long enough for her own point of view to emerge.”

Her third album, Sea of Tears, is a recording that fills in a vital, hitherto missing element of her musical persona. “Before I discovered Woody Guthrie and folk music,” she explains, “I was listening to Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and, later on, the Animals and the Kinks. I love that stuff, and I love to play it.” With this album, Jewell and her longtime band of Jason Beek (drums, harmony vocals), Jerry Miller (electric, acoustic, and steel guitars), and Johnny Sciascia (upright bass) wed her elegantly unflinching songwriting with a rustic, pre-Beatles swagger that encapsulates vintage R&B, Midwestern garage rock, Chicago blues, and early rock and rockabilly, while maintaining the haunting, folk-inspired purity that first made her an artist to watch.

Eilen Jewell photo by Jennifer Lucey-Brzoza

Jeremy Lyons, born and raised in Ithaca, NY, started out singing by campfires, in cafes and school hallways. Enthralled by blues and Appalachian music, he majored in ethnomusicology in college, spending hours poring through music library stacks. Jeremy studied country blues guitar with virtuoso Martin Simpson, and in 1992 Lyons landed in New Orleans in his pursuit of roots music. Soon he was playing his National guitar in an established group on the streets of the French Quarter, performing acoustic blues, swing and classic country, making a living, and learning from some of the city’s finest talent.

Eventually, Lyons formed the Deltabilly Boys with drummer Paul Santopadre and fellow busker Greg Schatz on upright bass. Hundreds of gigs a year in smoky New Orleans dives and international festivals solidified their new sound, a mix of Delta-style slide, fast finger picking and steady New Orleans beats and classic Rockabilly. Jeremy, playing on vintage electric guitars, even began stretching out on surf and western instrumentals. The Deltabilly Boys’ most recent album “Death of a Streetsinger” showcases the band’ return to a rootsy, acoustic format, with all original songs inspired by Jeremy’s experiences on the New Orleans streets. Hurricane Katrina hit the reset button for Jeremy Lyons. He relocated with his family to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has begun gigging in the Northeast. Paul and Greg are back in New Orleans, so the Deltabilly Boys currently play together only on occasion.

Nowadays Jeremy frequently performs solo. He also has two newer band projects. The “Bright Moments” is similar to the Deltabilly Boys, but features “Washtub” Robbie Phillips on 1-string electric bass diddley-bo, plus a drummer. “The Elastic Waste Band” includes Members of the 90s progressive rock band Morphine, Dana Colley and Jerome Deupree on electric baritone sax and drums, respectively. Jeremy started his “Delta-Silly Music for Kids” brand after developing his children’s repertoire one summer working as performing arts instructor at a day camp in Massachusetts. He now leads a sing-along for kids and parents every Saturday at Stellabella Toys in Inman Square, Cambridge, Mass.

Jeremy Lyons photo by Felix Rust

Eilen Jewell’s Sea of Tears has the feel of a breakout record. The Boston-by-way-of-Boise singer/ songwriter already has built an avid following with three rootsy recordings teeming with songs that sound born of speakeasies and honky-tonks and train rides, all without — and this is the truly impressive part—a whiff of contrivance. But Sea of Tears seems sparked by a crush, a new old-soulmate called early rock ‘n’ roll, and a glorious take on Johnny Kidd & The Pirates “Shakin All Over” is love-letter exhibit A. Independent Weekly (NC)

In an industry in which it’s too easy to do it wrong, Eilen Jewell has done it very, very right, resulting in this superb and seamless romp through swing jazz, smoky country ballads, and nostalgic old-time music. . . It’s a winner. Sing Out!

Jewell’s music has the languorous quietude of (Gillian) Welch or Norah Jones, but there is something more direct, almost in your face, about her stark, neo traditional melodies, subdued vocals, and confident, slow-swaying groove. It’s as if she’s daring us to say we miss the bells and whistles of pop . . . Jewell’s songs are achingly good, twanged-out elegies to a world of barbed wire, rusty trucks, and a frontier that no longer exists. Listen for the swagger of “Mess Around.” Blue state or red, cowboy or city girl, this is likely the best song about cutting loose that you’ve heard all year. BOSTON GLOBE

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[Jeremy Lyons is] a top-drawer interpreter of blues and rockabilly classics, an engaging storyteller in his own right, and one of the most mesmerizing slide guitarists on the circuit. The Times-Picayune, New Orleans

An exceptional guitar player, but what really persuades the listener are Jeremy’s unpretentious vocals, stage presence, and song selection. Blues Rag, Baltimore Blues Society

Jeremy Lyons is used to blowing people away with his deltabilly swing. The Erie Daily Times, Erie, PA