Dressed casually in a loose cotton blouse and print pedal pushers, the always engaging Irma Thomas greets her visitor at the front door of her elegant and comfortable New Orleans East bungalow she shares with her manager/husband Emile Jackson.

"I was just watching Mathilda," she says, clicking off the big screen television that dominates her living room. "It's a pretty good movie. I just bought it so the kids and grandk...