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You could compare Chris Webster with any number of folk singer-songwriters, from Dar Williams to the Indigo Girls, but truth be told, her sound is so straightforward and authentic that at the end of the day comparisons are a pale whitewash, and you just want to hear Webster sing.

The collection of songs in My Name Is Christine: A Retrospective range from bluegrass to bluesy gospel to incandescent blue-note torch songs, mostly written by Webster herself. There is something at once edgy and comforting in her gritty, honest musical Americana. Circles in the Wind circles around with easy guitar and brassy vocals: “Maybe we’re both on the same road / We’re just steppin’ out of time / . . . Seems so easy to love you / from the outside looking in.” The traditional Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow throws simmering blues riffs beneath a twangy gospel wail, and her cover of the Buddy Johnson classic Since I Fell for You should simply come with the warning: “Flammable!”

The album’s subtitle, “a retrospective,” sounds ambitious for a career that only spans about twelve years and includes just three solo albums (the third of which was released too recently to show up here). But the CD does present a wide cross-sampling of her sound, which is so satisfying it really doesn’t matter what you call it. My Name Is Christine gathers together 15 songs from two solo albums, a live performance, two albums from her days with the Davis, CA, band Mumbo Gumbo, and three cuts off a 2004 album she did with her sister Cassie and Scott Nygaard. There’s also a gem of an unreleased cut, called I Spoke as a Child, written by Todd Snider, whom Webster kudos in the liner notes: “just sitting in my living room wishing i knew how to write like todd snider.” Not that Webster’s writing lacks a whit, but amen.

Other notable cuts include I’m Driving, from her 1995 Drive album, which scorches the asphalt in a slow-moving roadhouse burlesque, with syncopated piano and melting horns: “You can take this love past the point of no return / You can take it all the way until it starts to burn / . . . But before you touch that wheel, you’ve got to understand / I’m driving.” The darkly fun That Chick is Twisted kicks up dust and shakes off the flies with burning vocals that sound like they’re filtered through an underwater microphone: “Apparently I’ve got problems that I never knew existed / I’m a moral disgrace to the human race / That chick is twisted.”

The final track, from a 2007 limited holiday release, is a fitting cherry on the cake: an adaptation of Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s arrangement of Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World. Now I’ve said before, and stand by it, that I cannot conscience medleys of any shape or form and generally support corporal punishment for the offenders. But this classic arrangement is the exception that proves the rule, in that it merges the tunes not to short-change the listener, but to add new meaning. Moreover, Webster’s stripped-down performance and boot-strap voice add a touching, compelling honesty which demands repeat listening.

Long-time fans of Webster may not find enough new stuff here to warrant the purchase, but for any newcomers, this is a great collection of solid cuts: there’s no stuffing on this CD. It just found a coveted slot in my over-crowded 300-disc changer.