"We played whatever was on the radio," said Kropf, who lived in Elkhart for 15 years before studying fine art and communication at GC. "It was sort of a fun, alter-ego band. We had costume changes and funny lighting."

Kropf's latest project, her 2009 album "Hestia," also has a strong cover theme to it, though this time she's replaying her own songs, considerably more serious in nature. The Pittsburgh-based independent artist's third record in 10 years, "Hestia" features six reworked versions of earlier Kropf songs, along with five original tracks.

Her first two albums, 2000's "Sky" and 2005's "What Else Is Love" featured full band recordings, but Kropf's live performances were often solo on piano or with one or two backing musicians.

Kropf said she was frequently asked when she would produce a studio project that matched the intimate, personal feel of her shows. Now was the right time, she said, so she polled her fans, took their top four picks, selected two of her own favorites and fine-tuned a set of new songs.

Making "Hestia" wasn't as simple, though, as hammering out studio cuts of live staples Kropf had played for more than a decade. Revisiting those melodies and bringing meaning to those lyrics again was a great challenge, she said.

"To go back into the studio and try and have any emotional connection to them was really hard," Kropf said. "That was the thing I learned most -- how do you get up for the task to do something that's 15 years old?"

The result is a simple, resonant, moving album with a soft acoustic/piano sound that lets Kropf's unique voice shine through. Falling on the folk side of the pop/folk/jazz style of her first two records, "Hestia" blends early-'70s Joni Mitchell instrumentation with vocals evoking Sarah McLachlan and Neko Case.

The lyrics are deep and personal, full of thought and emotion. The songs create a sanctuary for Kropf, she said, a sense of escape and solitude she hopes to pass on to the listener.

"They're sort of free therapy for me," she said. "I want to make studio albums with depth and variety, but I wanted this one to have warm and intimate sounds."

The album draws its name from the Greek goddess of the hearth and home. As Kropf describes it, Hestia was a sort of everyday deity of the simple, one who people worshiped in their homes.

It's a spirit Kropf wanted to channel, one that symbolized her return to simple recordings.

"In that sort of stripping away of all the extra musicians and production bells and whistles," she said, "I got back to the core of what I do as an artist, just my voice and piano."