While it’s true Kelly Hogan, Danielle Howle and Carolyn Mark are all members of the alt-country co-op, the three women are further connected by their onstage poise and ability to work an audience. Sharing a 10-day tour, various sidemen and singular voices, Howle, Hogan and Mark are pure entertainers, and pedal-steel guitarist Jon Rauhouse was the gossamer thread holding their sets together.

The evening began with Vancouver’s Mark, in a red dress and black maryjanes, accompanied on her acoustic guitar by her Room-Mates: Toland McNeil on another acoustic and Garth Johnson on a solitary red snare drum he played with brushes. Things were rolling along fine until Mark forgot a lyric. “Whoops—I forgot to drink today,” she laughed. “Day 10 of our tour, anything can happen.” Every song referenced bars and drunkenness, and Mark indulged in stage kicks, kneeling strumming, theatrical escapades and even a bit where all bandmembers, including the drummer, played with their instruments behind their backs. Mark likes to act coy, pretending she doesn’t know what she’s doing, and then blow that assumption out of the water with her clever songs and booming voice. Her trio tried to jump and end songs together as they landed, and nine times out of 10, they succeeded.

The crowd was warm and ready for Howle, a singer/songwriter from South Carolina (“where politicians are crooked and everyone drank in the 1920s when they weren’t s’posed to,” she quipped). She took to the stage alone—also in a red dress and black maryjanes—catching the audience off-guard and commanding an instant hush as she unassumingly started singing a cappella and scatting from the edge of the stage before strapping on her acoustic guitar. Gradually, Howle was joined by various instrumentalists, including Mark’s Room-Mates, Hogan’s guitarist Andy Hopkins, upright-bass player Andy Mabe and Rauhouse. Though none of her Tantrums (who play on her latest album, Skorborealis) were present, Howle had no problem traipsing elegantly through modified versions of those songs, notably “Sneaky A.M.,” “Dark Like The Coat (Acapella)” and “Swamp Song.” While these versions were stripped down, they lost no power under the strong weight of Howle’s alto. Of the night’s formidable singers, Howle is the one most capable of doing an entire set solo, even a cappella, and shutting up every audience member in a loud rock club. She sings dry, with no effects or reverb on her mic, allowing the supple-yet-throaty textures to float freely, seemingly effortlessly, from her small frame. “Thanks for letting me be pretentious and play on a rock stage,” said Howle after delivering her final song with the force of a gospel singer. “Hope you are loving living on the Earth.”

The hootenanny was rounded out by headliner Hogan, adorned by neither a red dress nor an acoustic guitar. Hogan admitted to being tired and surly, explaining she’d been sick with tonsillitis and had even cancelled two nights on the tour. Home in Chicago, Hogan delivered, however. Her sweet, full, reverb-drenched voice mostly accompanied solely by songwriting partner Hopkins’ guitar strains, but also occasionally joined by Rauhouse and Mabe. Hogan interprets more often than she writes original material, but as demonstrated on her recent Because It Feel Good, her taste and treatments are impeccable. Whether it’s Randy Newman’s “It’s So Hard Livin’ Without You,” Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone,” Grace Braun’s “Bringing Down Me” or Stephen Merritt’s “Papa Was A Rodeo,” her inflections are unmistakable. Hogan’s own “Sugarbowl” was a highlight of the set, during which she also debuted new material and was later joined by vocalist Nora O’Connor (Andrew Bird’s Bowl Of Fire) on a Staple Singers composition.

By the finale, all 10 aforementioned musicians were onstage, somehow cajoling, with their Southern (and Canadian) charms, the entire Chicago audience into singing along and clapping their hands to “Will The Circle Be Unbroken?” Apparently, the answer is a resounding yes.

—Cyndi Elliott