accessAtlanta

As Georgia as Lizz Wright is, you don't hear it in her almost French-sounding speaking voice.

Instead, it's in the languid beauty of the love songs on her third and most recent CD, "The Orchard." And it's definitely in the stories the now-Brooklyn-based singer shared before her Friday night homecoming.

Vincent Soyez / Special (ENLARGE)
Native Georgian songstress Lizz Wright performs Friday night (8 p.m.) at Center Stage with Heston as her opening act.
MOST POPULAR STORIES How and where to have a blast on the Fourth LA police plan for huge crowd at Jackson memorial Powerful sedative found in Michael Jackson's home Sandra Bullock movie takes over Atlanta private school Atlanta's fireworks options sparkle
EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS MOST POPULAR
RELATED LINKS: • More accessAtlanta Music news • PHOTOS: Atlanta's hottest concerts

Among them...

• On her hometown: "Hahira, as I remember it, is hard to explain," Wright says of the South Georgia town near the Florida border. "There's a lot of family history on the land where my grandmother is. American history, too. I feel very connected to that piece of the earth, to the point that I don't even understand it. I love the woods. [Drifts off...]. And my grandmother — she's so happy her road is about to get paved over, and I'm absolutely devastated.

"I remember taking the art director and the crew down their the first time, for [her first CD] 'Salt,' and they said. 'I really understand you now. I really feel you. These trees. The air. I really get it.' "

"My friends really hear my Southernness when I talk to my grandmother on the phone. But yeah, I do get that a lot — that I don't sound it. My father, he was a public speaker. And he would always tell us, 'Don't sound like you're Southern, or people will think you don't know anything.' So now my brother, my sister, we all don't. I speak very, very plain English — which has come to be a good thing. But I also wish he had given me a break on that. Where I come from and what it means is all very precious."

• On Atlanta: "The Atlanta music scene is a huge part of my life," continues Wright, who moved here to attend Georgia State University, where she studied voice. "It's like a family. Everybody knows everybody.

"And around [the midtown Atlanta jazz club] Churchill Grounds, everyone took it upon themselves to teach me something...There was Bernard Linnette, a drummer, who gave me a notebook of music. And he told me about Little Jimmy Scott. That first night — when I was too young to even be in there — I was introduced to [pianist] Kenny Banks. And I was asked to sit in with In The Spirit. That was very, very huge for me as a musician; and a person. A lot of things started with Churchill Grounds. Everybody was watching out for me in the Atlanta jazz community, and I am always going to be so thankful. And feel so, so many gifts. So many."

• On leaving, and returning: "But there was a moment when I went home for a year of school. I couldn't stand it — it was crazy — and I ended up moving to Macon, Ga. Working at Geico as an insurance agent. Living in an apartment by myself. Listening to Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter. Eating ramen noodles. And I was starting to think for the first time, 'You know, I don't need to achieve these things in a certain time period.' I was stopping the clock, I guess. But I started driving back [and forth] to Atlanta, and eventually made my way back."

CONCERT PREVIEW

Lizz Wright with Heston

Doors open at 8 tonight at Center Stage, 1374 W. Peachtree St. Tickets, $21, at Ticketmaster, 404-249-6400 or www.ticketmaster.com. Information: www.centerstage-atlanta.com.