Irma's new album

‘Soul Queen of New Orleans’ shines on album - Jazz - MSNBC.com

Though Thomas is known for her R&B roots and her rich, throaty, soulful alto, Billington wanted to take her in a different artistic direction on “After the Rain.”

“I wanted to find some way to showcase Irma’s voice that would show her as being one of the great voices of her time, and it really seemed confining that we would make another straight R&B record,” said Billington, who’s also an A&R executive at Rounder, her label home. “Her voice has gotten so beautiful and so rich as the years have passed.”

The album sounds raw, stripped and pared down compared to the bombast that have marked other CDs.

“It wasn’t something that I had in mind to do, but he wanted to feature me vocally as opposed to having a band and a lot of horns and all of that,” Thomas said. “He wanted to have acoustic instruments, and it worked.”(Check out the album here.)

(Photo by yours truly at the Festival International de Louisiane.)