"I'm a little black girl who'll rock your world," sings Danielia Cotton. Those are the opening words on her album "Rare Child." The song is "Make U Move," a thick funk-rock groove number that oozes the 1970s. Echoes of Sly and Skynyrd can be heard throughout the New Jersey singer/guitarist's second album. It would be easy to label Cotton the female answer to Lenny Kravitz except that she's a more distinctive vocalist, displaying a Southern-fried Joplin-like brawny, blues power. "Testify," the CD's gospel-infused centerpiece, starts like an old Stephen Stills tune and explodes likes the Black Crowes with more muscle. Cotton will indeed rock your world.

JON BREAM