POP MUSIC REVIEW : Siberry Downshifts Crisply Into Folk at Coach House : The Canadian singer’s simpler, more direct approach to music makes for an intimate concert.

Chalk up one more reason to be thankful that it’s cool to be a folkie again: We now get to hear Jane Siberry set aside her labyrinthine abstractions and explore songs that are simple and rewarding, not to mention far more comprehensible.

Maybe Siberry has taken note of the success of the Tracy Chapman/Cowboy Junkies folk-based class of ‘88-’89. Or maybe she simply concluded that she accomplished what she had set out to with the sprawling song-structures and puzzling symbolism that dominated her albums “The Speckless Sky” (1985) and “The Walking” (1988).

In any case, the direct, folk-based material from the Canadian singer’s strong current album, “Bound by the Beauty,” formed the basis for an exceptionally warm and intimate concert Thursday night at the Coach House.

Siberry, who in the past has toured with a seven-member ensemble featuring backup singer-dancers, has pared her act to the elemental stuff: just herself on guitars, tambourine and a few bars of accordion, aided by two fine accompanists, guitarist Ken Myhr and piano/accordionist Teddy Borowiecki.

Thanks to their contributions and Siberry’s ability to range from sheer whimsy to utter heartbreak, the nearly two-hour show never lacked variety or inventiveness. Only one song, “Bound by the Beauty,” sounded undernourished without a rhythm section.

Siberry signaled from the start that she is on a new tack. Playing for a small but rapt audience that seemed to be made up of committed fans, she began with Tom Waits’ open-hearted “Train Song,” singing with a tawny warmth reminiscent of Bonnie Raitt. For most of the concert, however, Siberry stayed in a higher, more ethereal range that recalled Joni Mitchell. Like Mitchell, Siberry frequently sang in unpredictable harmonic steps that skirted folk-pop convention, and lent her singing a sense of surprise and fragile mystery.

Siberry sang all of the “Bound by the Beauty” album, adding only one song from each of her three previous U.S. releases. Only one of those older songs, “Mimi on the Beach,” was an example of Siberry’s epic mode, and it is her most accessible magnum opus at that. Even so, she abridged “Mimi” considerably and leavened it with a healthy instrumental slice of “Georgy Girl,” as if to show anyone who had her pegged as a deliberately obscure artiste that some re-evaluation now is in order.

Myhr (pronounced “mire”) has been a longtime sidekick of Siberry’s. At the Coach House, he could almost have been a band unto himself. His arsenal included hard-edged acoustic slide guitar blues, atmospheric electronic effects, breezy Spanish guitar and even some tongue-in-cheek arena-rock hero licks during the joking finale, “Miss Punta Blanca.” Myhr also sang a taut desperado blues, “Bruce’s Song,” that recalled the Neville Brothers’ eloquently spare arrangement of Bob Dylan’s “Ballad of Hollis Brown.”

Siberry’s set moved along with sure pacing and intelligent juxtapositions of mood and theme. At mid-set, for example, she paired two of her loveliest songs: “The Walking,” a hushed meditation on the pain of a romantic breakup, was followed by “The Life Is the Red Wagon,” a swelling affirmation of hope and love.

The evening’s finest song was a new, unreleased number, “Calling All Angels.” In this country-folk tune, the protagonist is caught up in the first fearsome, intoxicating moments of a crush that is both utterly romantic and ragingly libidinous. It’s a number that Emmylou Harris or Linda Ronstadt probably wouldn’t mind having if they could get their hands on it, but Siberry’s sexy and plaintive reading did it full justice.

Siberry kept between-song chats in check, but she and her band mates managed to loosen the mood with playful asides (including shutterbugging each other and the audience with a camera that Siberry brought on stage). The trio’s comfortable interaction added to the show’s sense of warmth. The intimacy and detailed playing of Siberry’s concert rivaled that of Cowboy Junkies, those younger upstarts from her hometown of Toronto. But the energy, stylistic range and dynamic variations of Siberry’s show far exceeded what the ever-nodding Junkies have shown to date.