Stephanie Nilles & Feral Foster

“Ella Fitzgerald on speed beating the shit out of Regina Spektor.” That’s one way that New Orleans-based pianist and singer-songwriter Stephanie Nilles (“NIL-uhs”) has been described. On May 15, she and her touring partner Feral Foster will come to Guthrie’s. Nilles was originally trained as a classical pianist but is now performing a mix of jazz and folk (with a punk, and often politically charged, lyrical sensibility). Foster is on guitar and delivers a folk and blues combination, with echoes of Howlin’ Wolf, among others.