"Meet me by the edge of this moment, you bring stillness, I'll bring movement. Meet me by the edge of right now, you bring silence and I'll bring sound."

Heather Maloney's lyrics are enough to stop you dead. Poetic and powerful, Maloney's talents come to you in layers. Her lyrics, angst ridden and commanding, contemplative and tragic, are the kind of words you want to take home with you to keep.

Her vocals throb and ache through the music. From the first crackle of a vocal on her first tune, "Let it Ache," Maloney laid it all out on the floor Thursday night at Abilene. Her voice resonates and carries. She closes her eyes and digs the words out from somewhere inside of her, and the result is something akin to the embodiment of folk goddess Joni Mitchell, with moments of the mystifying agony of Alanis Morrissette mixed with the charming loneliness of the Cranberries.

Of all the live folk acts I've seen at Abilene, none seemed to fit into the intimate atmosphere as well as Maloney. It was incredibly satisfying to hear a vocal that endearing and evocative up close.

Maloney's set peaked mid-set with a song called "Silent Killer." If there was any room left in her throat to belt and push out the emotion, it all came out here. The song waded back and forth between a sweet ballad sound and harsh, gritty folk rock. It was a beautiful and well constructed tune, sweet but dark.

Maloney's vocals glow best inside her ballads. "In Each Other All Along," which she jokingly called "a love song to herself," was perfectly placed towards the end of the set. Strikingly soft and melodically simple, this tune delivered some of the most memorable lyrics of the evening. Maloney artistically toys with simple melodies and finds ways to make the sum of simple parts emerge complex and extraordinary.

The little folk singer from Massachusetts is currently in the middle of a hectic East Coast tour, traveling around with her debut album, "Cozy Razor's Edge."