Saffire's in town with a new CD - and maybe a farewell

"I don't want to be unfaithful, I'd rather be divorced," said

Ann Rabson

, shaping her thoughts like she does her song lyrics. "Better to end a love affair on a high note, when you're happy, than to cheat. You want to keep it good until you stop."

Rabson could be talking or singing about a lover, but she was referring to that special musical trio that's been a major part of her life - Saffire, The Uppity Blues Women. The group's coming around for what's likely to be the last time this weekend with a show at the World Cafe Live.

They'll be showcasing material from a snappy new Alligator album that likewise tips their plans, "Havin' the Last Word."

"We're not going to stop playing, but we want to work on our own projects, go off in different directions," said Rabson.

For the past 25 years, Saffire has kept the torch burning bright, the musical continuity going, with a boldly honest and amusing, earthy and empowering style of no-holds-barred acoustic blues.

Theirs is a funky form of feminist music rooted in tradition - those tough-struttin' blues mamas of the early 20th century like Memphis Minnie, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.

Reviving those predecessors' songs and crafting new ones in similar veins, Saffire offers moaning-low but high-spirited life lessons about standing up for yourself, doing right by your lover, taking carnal pleasure where you can and ridding yourself of losers - sometimes with ridicule and rarely with remorse.

"When we first got started, we made some people very uncomfortable," recalled Rabson in a recent chat. "A lot of people thought our whole thing was about male bashing, which we weren't. What we were was bold and uppity. We spoke our minds.

"The other thing that bothered people - we'd show up for a gig and they'd say, 'Where's the band?' Historically the blues is a guy thing when it comes to the playing. It's always been OK to have a woman vocalist, or three, but not to have females also playing everything like we do - me on piano, Gaye [Adegbalola] on slide guitar and harmonica, Andra [Faye] on violin, mandolin, guitar and bass."

The name Saffire - where'd that come from, pondered her interviewer.

Given the boldly salacious, female-addressing tone of Adegbalola songs like "Silver Beaver," were they referencing Sappho, that most famous and liberated of female poets in ancient Greece, who lived on the isle of Lesbos . . . ? And weren't some of those female blues originals they so admire lesbian or bi-sexual?

"Actually, we were thinking first of Saffire, the funny, speaking-her-mind character on the 'Amos and Andy' [radio and TV] show," said Rabson with a laugh. "We were also thinking of sapphire the precious stone - blue and hard. But sure, Sappho is a part of it, too. We've always been about diversity."

The 64-year-old Rabson is straight and married. The "fiftyish" Faye is likewise heterosexual and in a relationship. Living up to her surname, the 60-something Gaye Adegbalola is "a long-time advocate and activist on the lesbian and civil rights fronts," said her bandmate.

"Of course, we're each writing from our own points of view," Rabson added, "but after all these years, we've learned a lot from each other. It's always our style to sing lead in round-robin fashion, taking turns backing each other up. And we go for themes that have universal appeal. That's why our audience is so diverse - old and young, straight and gay, and racially mixed."

On the new album, Andra's high points include a touching new country-tinged original, "Blue Lullabye," about having a miscarriage. Gaye's standout "Bald Eagle" was inspired by a friend who lost her hair from chemo therapy.

Rabson's contributions include songs about "love lost, love found, love that can conquer all and love is a piece of crap," she detailed. She's also singing lead on a raucous, ragtime oldie called "Kitchen Man," one of those classic double entendre ditties that celebrates her food server's "sweet jelly roll" and "sausage meat."

So who's gonna keep singing this stuff, when they're gone?

"This music won't go away," vowed Robson. "Besides us, there are younger blues talents like Shemekia Copeland, Debbie Davies and Deanna Bogart carrying the torch, plus a whole different sub-genre of soul blues women like Denise LaSalle, who's really out there with songs like 'Lick It Before You Stick it.' I tell you, they make us look like shrinking violets." *

World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St., 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, $25 in advance, $30 day of show, 215-222-1400, www.worldcafelive.com.