KERI NOBLE

CSPS debut | Part gospel. Part blues. Part heart-on-her-sleeve singer and songwriter. Keri Noble is all that and more. Based in Minneapolis, she's been described as combining the smooth sophistication of Diana Krall with the gritty soul of Etta James.

The daughter of a Christian pastor in a small, Spanish-speaking church on Detroit’s southwest side, Noble was raised in a strict household where secular music was frowned upon. By her late teens, she’d heard enough bits and pieces of R&B, hip-hop and other urban sounds — on car radios or MTV videos playing at friends’ houses — to realize that there was an entire world waiting outside the church walls.

It was the voice of Joni Mitchell, more than anything else, that steered Noble toward songwriting. One listen to Mitchell’s 1971 album, Blue, and she suddenly had a sense of direction. “That record just felt so pure to me, and those songs are so powerful and expressive,” she says. “I played that CD so much I wore it out.”

After relocating to Minneapolis, Keri signed with EMI Manhattan in 2003. Her debut, Fearless, was released the following year and met with high praise from critics, though the goal of turning her into the next Nora Jones proved misguided. Struggling to re-establish her sense of freedom, she signed with JVC and released Let Go in 2007.

In 2008, she signed with Telarc and this year released her self-titled return to form. Hampered in the past by the preconceptions and unrealistic expectations of record executives and marketing operatives, her transition to Telarc puts her in a place that feels more empowered and free than she’s felt since her recording career began.

The Boston Globe praised the record as full of bold moments: “The stellar opening track, ‘Watch Me Walk,’ is a self-confident number that captures the possibilities of starting over.” The soaring “Emily” was also featured this year on an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.”

In a world that’s seldom if ever black and white, Noble is keenly attuned to the coexistence of both the light and the dark, and conveys them in terms that are as universal as they are simple. Songs like “Remember My Name” and “Last Warning” veer close to the edges of desperation and even tragedy, while much more rousing and inspirational tracks like “Born Again” and “Go Proud” hearken back to her upbringing in the soul- and gospel-drenched sounds of her native Detroit.