Singer/songwriter Michelle Malone said she didn't fully embrace her Southern-music roots until a couple of years ago.

"It's like growing up and finding out your mom was right about a lot of things in life," Malone said by phone from her home in Nashville. "You grow up not listening, and then you get to a point where you kind of grow up and realize your mom was right. That's kind of how it was with me with music. I grew up and realized that there were — and still are — a lot of good sounds that come from the South: rock 'n' roll, blues, country — the list goes on."

Malone said her favorite type of music is '70s rock. "The '70s (Rolling) Stones, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Brown — those artists stuck with me through everything. But when I started playing music on my own, I didn't want to sound like anyone but myself. I really didn't have a plan. I just started playing."

Her songwriting runs the gamut, from blues to rock to rhythm & blues to country ... just to name a few. Not surprisingly, she's toured with Joan Jett, The Indigo Girls, ZZ Top and Johnny Winter.

With her new album, "Sugarfoot," Malone said she wanted to make fun music that got down to the essence of the human soul. "I wanted a stripped-down rock album. I wanted to simplify what I was doing at this juncture of my life. It's the bare quality of rock and blues. Furthermore, it isn't a perfect album.

"The mistakes are in there and are kept on the album to show that it's real. It would be so easy to make a perfect album with the studio technology these days, but making a perfect album is more an engineer's work rather than a musician's work. I wanted my album to be a musician's work, because I make music to make music."

If you go

What: Michelle Malone

Where: Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East

When: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.

How much: $10

Phone: 467-8499 or 800-888-8499

Web: www.smithstix.com

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E-mail: scott@desnews.com