A self-proclaimed “church girl,” Crystal Monee Hall grew up belting from the choir loft, enamored with her mother’s singing on Sundays in Richmond, Virginia. Years later, she has performed in the National Tour and Broadway productions of RENT, worked with such varied artists as Mickey Hart, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Thomas Rhett, Ben Platt and Kristen Chenoweth, and composed and sang for the Bay Area’s Jazz Mafia. Her own original music, the featured on her debut album, “River Train,” and two EPs, Three Days in Nashville, and If You Breathe, recall the sepia-toned memories of her southern childhood. Hall’s music re-interprets vocal and composition styles immortalized by the likes of Bessie Smith, Donny Hathaway, and Joni Mitchell. The result is something akin to the imagined love child of Sam Cooke and Tracy Chapman, a prophetic fusion of folk, gospel, and regional blues that allows the listener to fall into the murky intersections between love and hate, pride and sacrifice, heaven and hell. Crystal’s music is a call to action. Whether that action is going to confession for some hail Marys, pulling your sweetie a little closer, or protesting before a Senate Judiciary Committee is up to you to figure out. Enjoy the blackhandsidejesusrockmelovemusic.