Nadia Lanfranconi’s highly unusual pedigree — an Italian-born punk rocker turned country singer — may seem wildly unorthodox, but the guitar-picking songster pulls it off with natural ease and admirable aplomb. For Lanfranconi, country music’s appeal latched on and grew to become an irresistible impulse that’s taken her from local honky-tonks to recent assaults on Nashville itself.

As her provocative new video “Always” demonstrates, Lanfranconi’s is a persuasive, painstakingly crafted contemporary style that acknowledges tradition even as it charges forward as a shadowy 21st-century update. “Always” relies on a peculiarly twisted mixture of a disturbing stalker theme and Lanfranconi’s exquisitely tender vocal caress — a knock-out sucker punch combination that easily rates her as a force to be reckoned with.

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