By Dave Miller

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As Cathy Richardson tried to correct sound problems during the early part of her band's concert at the Intercontinental Hotel's Montrose Room in Rosemont, she relayed a request for more vocals to the soundman. That prompted a confirming cheer from concertgoers.

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When you go see Richardson perform, you come to hear her sing.

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Richardson's voice draws raves from many places, including currently overseas where she's on tour as the lead singer for Jefferson Starship. It's been written here before and remains true -- Richardson is the best female singer in rock today. She's fearless in how she pushes her voice. She digs deep and takes her vocals to places few singers dare approach in the belting tradition of Janis Joplin and Ann Wilson. It takes guts to perform with such freedom, and Richardson has plenty.

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So Richardson has that going for her.

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What can be easily overlooked, and it is easy with that voice, is how complete of a performer Richardson is, especially when she fronts her own band. She's so comfortable onstage with the confidence that she can handle anything, including sound issues that would derail many performers. When weird sounds were coming from a stage monitor at the start of the show, she simply put her guitar down and moved to her keyboard, and quickly turned a negative into a positive. The hometown hero played a jazzy, improvised version of "Ain't No Home" and pushed her voice past normal barriers to get to the other side.

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Richardson returned to the center microphone and strapped her guitar back on, but sound problems persisted. Her consternation with the struggling soundman rose, but that didn't stop her from delivering one stunning moment after another. Her "Fly" into "Age of Aquarius" drew a standing ovation, while "Making a List" evoked Joplin.

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Not only did Richardson honor some requests, which her hometown fans were a little too comfortable shouting throughout the night, but she sought chances to improvise, keeping the band on its toes and the performance in the moment much like the Boss did when he recently hit town. A free-form jam started with Richardson at her keyboard and delved into gospel and a thrilling call-and-response as she moved to the center mic, turning the souless venue into a church. Next came an impromptu birthday song for a woman in the crowd done to Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll," and that was fittingly followed by "Rock and Roll Part II," a song by Richardson's other band, the Macrodots, that holds its own with its namesake.

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Guitarist Jude Gold, who recently joined Richardson in Jefferson Starship, played off Richardson's voice, and bassist Frank Kondorf stayed with the singer every step of the way. Richardson's foil, dancing fiddler Anne Harris, was absent and missed. She was in Europe playing with blueman Otis Taylor. Harris' absence resulted in Richardson shouldering even more of the show, and that's no problem whatesoever for her. Fronting a band expertly is second nature to her at this point. She has written so many good songs over the years that you're bound not to hear everything you'd like, though she does mix her setlists nicely from show to show. At the end of this night, Richardson rewarded her longtime fans with an old favorite, "Bad Example." By then, Richardson showed once again that she's more than a singer. She's a bonafide rock star.

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