Based on the simplest description, British-born Scout Niblett should be much more popular than she is. A stripped-down singer-songwriter, she lives in Portland and collaborates with producer Steve Albini, who has recorded the Pixies, Joanna Newsom, and PJ Harvey. Her 2007 record, This Fool Can Die Now, featured harmonized folk duets with Will Oldham, a.k.a Bonnie Prince Billy. Those details, though, just make Niblett sound like another Cat Power and don’t get to the heart of her music. She deals in alienation, both in her instrumentation – often only drums or a lone guitar – and in her lyrics. She is intimate and uninhibited; even Cat Power fans might be uncomfortable hearing a woman banging a drum and singing in a raw, gravelly voice about alchemy and astrology, the way Niblett does on her January release The Calcination of Scout Niblett. PAIGE RICHMOND

Sat., March 27, 9:30 p.m., 2010