Lila Downs realized that the political had become perilously personal when her temper frayed and she started lashing out at her musicians for minor or nonexistent transgressions.

After a while, the Mexican-American vocalist came to understand that she was internalizing her fury over the siege of Oaxaca, a prolonged political crisis that gripped the southern Mexican city where she was born to a Mixtec Indian mother and Anglo-American father.

Traces of that anger can be heard on Downs' remarkable new album, “Shake Away” (Manhattan), but as the CD's title suggests, she used the process of writing, arranging and recording the project to shed the negativity that was plaguing her.

Exploring a panoply of grooves, from New Orleans second line and reggae to country boogie, Downs and her saxophonist husband, Paul Cohen, created a vibrant, horn-laden tapestry woven with humor, love, anguish and a powerfully mythic sensibility.

“There were all these dark elements in our lives,” said Downs, who performs with her band La Misteriosa at the House of Blues on Monday. “I saw Oaxaca with the tanks on the streets. There's a fight going on in your backyard and, suddenly, I started getting really angry and hating all the guys in the band.

“It's so painful. I thought about jumping off the bridge. I was generating all this anger. So, when the time came to start recording, Paul and I agreed it's gotta be fun. We wanted to find that celebratory quality that music can have.”

Rather than focusing on the Oaxacan conflict, which pits leftist teachers and students against a corrupt, entrenched state government dominated by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Downs and Cohen cast a wider net, writing and adapting songs that explore the lives of exiles, immigrants and working people struggling for food, dignity and justice.

Working with a fascinating cast of guest artists and her wide-ranging international band, Downs moves back-and-forth between languages, employing potent mythic imagery drawn from Oaxacan folklore.

On “Perro Negro” (“Black Dog”), a song inspired by rumors that Oaxaca's governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, maintains his grip on power by transforming into a hound, Downs is joined by Café Tacuba's Ruben Albarran, an old friend from the days when Downs lived in Mexico City. Another high point is the nostalgia-laden duet with the great Argentinean singer Mercedes Sosa on Downs' “Tierra de Luz” (“Land of Light”), a song about longing for one's homeland.

But the project's centerpiece is “Skeleton,” a piece built on a lean second line beat laid down by La Misteriosa bassist Booker King and drummer Yayo Serka.

“I wanted this album to be more acoustic, and my husband agreed 100 percent,” Downs said. “We started with a blues, then went to Booker, who knows about New Orleans and Gulf Coast Texas. He put in some of that groove with Yayo, and the music started taking a direction.

“But, for the overall sound, we wanted a brass band feel. Every place you go in the world, there are brass bands playing for the community, so that's a beautiful unifying feature, along with the more mystical approach to the music.”

The brass arrangements come courtesy of jazz veteran trumpeter Brian Lynch, the former San Diegan who won a Grammy last year for his brilliant collaboration with seminal Latin jazz pianist-composer Eddie Palmieri “Simpático” (Artist Share).

Downs co-wrote a tune with Lynch for the Palmieri project and contributed vocals on la musica Latina standard “Paginas de Mujer.” While Paul Cohen is a fine jazz reed player, Downs hasn't explored much of the Afro-Caribbean continuum that ties jazz to many genres of Latin American music. Drawn to the emotional power of her voice, Lynch didn't flinch in recruiting her for “Simpático.”

“I was immediately struck by a great singer, and I loved the whole expressiveness of her personality,” Lynch said. “I filed that away and when it came time to put together 'Simpático,' I thought I'd take a chance to see if she might want to participate. And it worked out really well. She has a love for jazz, and that's a part of their music. It wasn't as big as a stretch as some people might think.”

Downs and Cohen returned the favor with “Shake Away,” asking Lynch to make his own creative stretch. He studied various brass band traditions for the project, looking into Mexican banda music to inform his jazzy arrangements. Ultimately, he knew he could rely on Downs to put her personal stamp on the disparate material.

“The quality of her voice isn't confined to one style of music,” Lynch said. “No matter what she's singing, she transcends genre. But having said that, she's very concerned with exploring musical tradition, making something new in a very organic way, which is the way I feel I work with jazz and Latin music. Pay respect to tradition and make something new out of it.”

-- Andrew Gilbert