Though you’ve probably never heard of Serabee, she’s already had quite the career: in the early 2000s she had three major-label albums (under the name Sera Buras); two were produced by Gary Katz of Steely Dan fame and one track was co-produced by Peter Gabriel. One of her originals from that era, “Crazy Chick” was covered by Charlotte Church and went to number two in the U.K. Serabee was also a contestant on television’s The Voice, making it to the semifinals in 2011. Cee-Lo Green was one of the judges who voted for her.

All of which says that Serabee knows how to make hit records. And her New Orleans-made indie debut was clearly made to be one—but not in the programmed and processed modern-day style. What we’ve got here is a modern homage to Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis, the kind of album where Southern roots are displayed proudly (Serabee is originally from Kiln, Mississippi); the band (all notable local names) maintains a steamy Muscle Shoals groove, and the singer takes every chance to open up and emote.

Serabee’s throat-tearing performance on “Fair Weathered Man” is proof enough that she can do the gospel fireworks when a song calls for it; but she’s also smart enough to know that not every song calls for it. She keeps it restrained on the countryish “I Need Saving Too,” where she has Willie Nelson partner Mickey Raphael’s harmonica to duet with; and on “Tennessee,” a close cousin to the going-back-home songs Lucinda Williams used to write. The two best songs here, “Anything Like the Boy” and “I’m Closed,” are also the most retro-sounding; one could easily imagine Dusty having a go at them (and the Steve Cropper-style lick that Shane Theriot plays to kick off the latter is the icing on the cake). Serabee waits ’till the last track, the eight-minute “Moonchild,” to show off all the range she’s got: having done love and loneliness on the rest of the album, here she does desire for all it’s worth.