Over three acclaimed albums with the Be Good Tanyas, Frazey Ford established herself as a one-of-a-kind folksinger. Her high lonesome quaver was a trademark of the trio, sounding as though she grew up playing shoeless in the bluegrass fields of some Appalachian outback. Her solo album came out on July 1. Titled Obadiah, the name alone would lend itself to a backwoods twang revival.

But the Nettwerk release is anything but that. Ford releases her inner Aretha by way of Al Green on this one.

"I was always a soul singer, and it's always been a frustration to me that nobody knows it," says Ford. "In fact, the country-type songs I was writing that we did in the Be Good Tanyas were very much influenced by my mother, who is really into that sort of music. But my biggest influences were always singers like Al Green and Prince."

With the exception of covering When Doves Cry on the last BGT album, the R&B; love wasn't coming through for her. Ford says her new disc is the one she was always meant to make. That her old bandmate Trish Klein plays guitar on a number of tracks on the album doesn't strike her as surprising. The two played in a soul band before the BGTs.

From the silky grooves of opening track Firecracker, to the testifying ode to caffeine One More Cup of Coffee, Ford belts it out like she was born to sing soul. Yes, there are also tunes that bear more familiarity with country and bluegrass, too: Gospel Song was a regular live staple of the BGTs' set, but the overall feel of Obadiah is bluesy.

"It's always all about the voice for me," Ford says. "And working with Trish, who knows exactly what I want it to sound like, and producer-musician John Raham, it was easy to find the people who could collaborate together to get the taste and esthetic we wanted. Oddly, with me having the final say, it made the process more collaborative."

With her quartet of Klein, Raham and bassist Darren Harris ready to hit the road in support of the disc, including a performance Tuesday at the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield, Ford is resigned to becoming a road warrior again. It's never been her favourite part of the music biz, being somewhat counterintuitive to parenting and her green-living orientation.

"I won't be able to do it this tour, but I'd love to find ways to make the touring process more green by travelling by train and then freighter to Europe," she says. "It sits hard with me to be worried about climate change and then flying everywhere."

She's not just talk either. Over the past few years, She has not only been involved in the urban farming scene, but Ford and Klein have actually become beekeepers. Keeping hives and making honey has her excited about the potential of making mead.

Because, "if you've got mead, you'll never go hungry."

Words to live by.