A songwriter and singer with Australia’s “Black Arm Band” and “Mission Songs Project,” Deline Briscoe makes an impressive solo debut with “Wawu,” a jazzy and reflective world music album. With songs sung in English and Yalanji (an Australian Aboriginal language of Queensland), she sings of struggles and optimism, pain and healing, compassion and optimism. The imaginative, spiritual musical journey is anchored by Stephen Maxwell (piano), Robert Finch (bass), co-producer Airleke Ingram (drums) and others. With lush vocal harmonies in the mix, some songs like “Ignorance is Bliss” and “Trust Us” create joyful moments with a fusion of jazz, hip-hop and soul. Slower numbers like “Tree,” a hymn to creation and nature, are given lean arrangement to emphasize their messages. In this case, lyrics from Kevin Gilbert’s poem emphasize that “Earth and God and man are nothing, until they fuse and become a total sum of something. Together fuse to consciousness of all.”  Another album highlight, her self-penned “Heartbeat,” speaks to one’s inner rhythm “in sync with the land that you come from.” Deline Briscoe is a versatile soul woman with silky smooth and supple vocals.  With both soothing calmness and spiritual atmospherics, “Wawu” is an impassioned musical performance.  (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)