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Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins perform "Rabbit Fur Coat"

2006 is bound to go down as a year of outstanding left-of-center country records from celebrated chanteuses, led by Neko Case’s powerhouse Fox Confessor Brings the Flood along with Cat Power’s The Greatest, Allison Moorer’s Getting Somewhere and Lucinda Williams’ forthcoming The Knowing. Right up among them is a bit of a dark horse in the debut solo record by Jenny Lewis (with the Watson Twins), Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love). It’s an album that veers from manifestos on politics and religion, dark confessionals, sing-a-long covers and understated pop savvy for a slightly off-kilter yet ultimately tempered and mature taste of country-soul.

In a lot of ways, Lewis had nothing to lose and everything to gain in making Rabbit Fur Coat.

The stunning redheaded former child actress (she had major roles in 1980s flicks Troop Beverly Hills and The Wizard) can claim an already cemented status as indie rock royalty. Lewis led her LA band Rilo Kiley from underground obscurity to a deal with Warner Brothers and a tour supporting Coldplay. Her star found itself further on the rise with her participation in the Postal Service, the synth- and loop-strewn side project of Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard. Team Love label chief Conor “Bright Eyes” Oberst asked Lewis to make a solo release for the imprint. (Gibbard and Oberst both guest on Rabbit Fur Coat’s cover of the Traveling Wilburys’ “Handle With Care.”)

It would have been easy to make a more perhaps “obvious” record trawling in similar territory to her previous work, but Lewis took a clever and enriching detour.

She brought in Kentucky-born twin sisters Chandra and Leigh Watson and split the recording for Rabbit Fur Coat between lauded singer/songwriter Matt (“M.”) Ward and Mike Mogis, whose recording prowess and musicianship make Oberst’s Bright Eyes viable. The result is a record that has a raw intimacy, reinforced by Lewis’ gentle voice, that is still bigger and challenging in scope than it appears at first.

The title track is a musically sparse but richly detailed story that represents a studied recast of American folk traditions. The ballad not only stylistically sounds like a 78 from the Harry Smith archives but also tackles the class issues often at the center of early Americana. “Rise Up with Fists!!” is about as perfect as a song gets, with an elegantly arranged pop melody, ascendant harmonies (Lewis’ keenest decision with Rabbit Fur Coat could well be bringing the Watsons on board, and it’s so apparent here) and a wickedly clever, shifting, self-reflexive narrative about hypocrisy as Lewis realizes, “There but for the grace of God go I.” God is just another character in her stories, though “Born Secular,” with its Casiotronic two-step beat, organ and infused doowop, finds avowed atheist Lewis dipping into decidedly experimental, anti-gospel gospel music.

Bottom line with Rabbit Fur Coat is that Lewis shines, showing the world she’s more than just the “it girl” of the nu-new wave.