Kentucky native, Cincinnati-based blues rocker Kelly Richey has honed all the prerequisite blues licks necessary and is focused on bringing the blues into the 21st Century with its integrity intact. Her guitar tones are strong and vibrant with a discernible heaviness rooted in the hard rock of the early-‘70s. Her tone often recalls the brooding drama of Robin Trower in its lean towards hard rock. Match that with a vocal coolness redolent of the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde and you’ve got a modern interpretation of the blues that never betrays its roots. “What In the World” is a gentle number questioning world events circa 2008, while the title track travels similar terrain but with a belief that the music will unlock certain universal truths. Her studio trio, different from her live band, is augmented with keyboardist Bill Brandenburgh whose extra texture on “Angela’s Song,” a tune about a 17-year-old girl who saw the military as her way out of a predicament, nicely sets the mood settling behind Richey’s fiery solos and carefully arranged riff displays.