There's no more fitting title for Elizabeth McQueen's second album than Happy Doing What We're Doing, because that's just how this Austin, Texas-based singer feels about making music with her band The Firebrands.

"I can understand why some people think music is a very serious deal," says McQueen. "But to me, there's nothing more fun than playing music and being up on stage or even just being in rehearsal and playing a cool song."

And cool songs is what Happy Doing What We're Doing, her salute to England's little-known pub rock movement of the early 1970s, is all about. After digging back into the antecedents of some of her favorite acts like Elvis Costello, Rockpile and Squeeze, McQueen discovered a scene that shared some of the same musical values she considers paramount - great songs with pop appeal, an eclectic appreciation for the broad palette of American roots music styles, and making music for barroom crowds that brings as much enjoyment to those onstage as it does to those in the audience.

Among the bands whose songs she covers is Eggs Over Easy, the American group that moved to England and talked the governor of their local pub into letting them play there. Then the English band Brinsley Schwarz heard them and decided to do the same thing and perform in pubs. In their wake followed such diverse acts like Ducks Deluxe, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Dr. Feelgood, the Kursaal Flyers and many others, none of whom ever made much impact across the pond in America, though the songs by their members that McQueen covers here might make you scratch your noggin and wonder why.

And when British new wave and punk followed in the wake of pub rock, many of the musicians who cut their teeth in the scene began to break through. It was McQueen's affection for Costello, Squeeze, Graham Parker and Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe and their band Rockpile that led her to pub rock in the first place. Rounding it all out is her own "Dirty Little Secret," written (with Wendy Mitchell) in the spirit of pub rock. "It's happy music and I dig it," she explains. "And I dig it so much that I went back and learned all I could about it. It's total labor of love."

Happy Doing What Were Doing features some of the most notable musicians in the Texas capital city. Helming the whole affair as producer and slammin' the skins behind the drums is longtime Asleep at the Wheel drummer Dave Sanger. Adding guitar is master six-stringer Chris Miller, now with Dave Alvin & The Guilty Men after doing time in McQueen's Firebrands as well as playing with Marcia Ball and other Austin notables. Keyboards are provided by Asleep at the Wheel's John Michael Whitby, Austin veteran Nick Connolly, and Austin de Lone of Eggs Over Easy (whose credits include work with Lowe, Commander Cody and Bill Kirchen). Joining McQueen on "Seven Nights to Rock" as well as elsewhere on the disc are members of Austin's bar band deluxe The Conrads: bassist Earl B. Freedom, keyboardist David Beebee, guitarist Landis Armstrong and drummer Andrew Gerfers.

Since arriving in Austin at the dawn of the new century, Elizabeth McQueen has distinguished herself within that roots music mecca with her talent, enthusiasm, and uniquely different approach. "To my mind, she's the best new thing to come down this Austin pike in some time, displaying class, versatility, and a distinctiveness all too rare in these parts," notes Rob Patterson, Austin columnist for England's Country Music People. "With a deft mix of classicism and modernity, McQueen is bound for musical greatness and possible glory. Mark my words, please."

By dint of her birth in Little Rock, Arkansas, McQueen might claim a roots music birthright, though if the truth be told she came into her love of the music of the American South later in life. Coming of age in Columbia, Maryland, where her family moved when she was 10, McQueen followed piano and vocal lessons with stints in a variety of bands in her high school years as something "on the side." Like mmmany teens of her day, she enjoyed modern rock acts like The Smiths, Depeche Mode, The Cure and P.J. Harvey. But as she entered college, it was the rootsy pull of favorites like Costello and The Band that led her to voraciously explore the charms of classic country music. By the time her uncle turned her on to Rockpile and a college professor hipped her to Bill Kirchen & Too Much Fun, McQueen had found her musical home within roots music.

After graduation, she landed a job doing social work, but making music had a growing allure. "I realized that as an adult you get to pick what you do," McQueen explains. "You don't have a syllabus and required courses. And if you get to pick what you do, that means that you should probably pick something you like." So she moved to Austin, reckoning it was an ideal locale to hone her musical talents.

McQueen quickly began assembling her group The Firebrands - guitarist Andrew Nafziger, bassist Lindsay Green and drummer Eric Hughes - and making a name for herself on the local club scene. Though Austin acts like The Derailers and Dale Watson fed her love of true country, hearing The Conrads rock barrooms inspired McQueen to develop her own approach to neo-traditional music making. "What Elizabeth McQueen is doing these days is a far cry from Patsy Cline, Connie Smith, and Kitty Wells, and certainly miles away from the crop of Nashville angels," observed Jerry Renshaw in the Austin Chronicle. "In a marketplace that's saturated with traditional female country singers, that difference, along with her charm, talent, and attitude, may be just what she needs to really stand out."

And stand out is just what she did with the 2002 release of The Fresh Up Club. It earned her favorable comparisons to the work of singers like Rosanne Cash, Carlene Carter and Kirsty MacColl in the new wave years from publications like the Village Voice and No Depression. And as the Santa Monica Mirror noted, "If pub rock had been launched in Texas instead of England, Elizabeth McQueen and the Firebrands' The Fresh Up Club is what it might've sounded like."

So it was only natural for McQueen to delve deeper into the roots of the music she found so inspirational for her next recording. "It's kind of spoke to me like the whole 'Great Books' thing, that there's this great conversation in arts, literature and science among those who came before and after and in the present. To me, the pub rock scene was a microcosmic example of that great conversation. The pub rock guys were looking at this particular brand of American music, and saying, man, that's the coolest stuff. I want to play that. But when they played it, they naturally t took it somewhere else. And when so many people that you like came out of one scene, you can't deny it."

But as one listen to Happy Doing What We're Doing attests, the album is anything but an academic exercise in musical history. Instead, it's a vivid demonstration of how the vital lifeline of inspiration keeps sparking delightful new iterations of trusty styles and themes. "It's just cool, fun songs. They have rhythm & blues, country, rock and everything mixed into them. But mostly it's that the songs are really good. That's what attracts me.

"I just love this music and I love listening to it and playing it," McQueen enthuses. "A good three chord rocker played with plenty of fun, excitement and moxie is as good and as valid today as it ever was. The real authenticity comes from the joy of doing it."