Nadine Sutherland in performance at 'A Night of Strictly Culture' held in honour of Joseph 'Culture' Hill on the lawns of the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre, Kingston, on Friday, September 8, 2006. - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer

Call My Name is not, of course, solely about the intensely personal; nor is it an attempt to make a grand statement, the artistic taking total precedence over the commercial. Ms. Sutherland describes it as "a balance of both. You can't be unrealistic. You have to eat a food. A smart artiste is able to combine both. This was my attempt to be artistic and commercial."

So the fun Big Tingz gets prominence as the second song on the album, but the song that really, really gets Sutherland laughing is the uptempo Fox Can't Get The Grape.

It tells the tale of a lady stepping into a club and stepping past a man who had tried but was turned down and is bitter, Sutherland singing "fox can't get the grape he will say it is sour/it is all about power". And a bit further she sings his intentions of "just wanted me to be another chick on your belt".

'My rebuttal'

It is a very specific song. "He is not a little boy. He is a big man ... That song came as my rebuttal. I was scorned after ... You have men like that. They cannot take a woman not going with them. Me call him 'bway' because I think that behaviour is so boyish," she said, laughing. "It is so funny."

She also has fun deejaying on parts of the album, such as at the end of the title track. It is not the first time she has chanted on record, but Sutherland says "my deejay skills have been honed by the many appearances I have had to make without Terror Fabulous (to do Action). Me a get forwardand pull up. I think of Tiger when I am deejaying. I get 'tigerish'."

There is another kind of growl at the end of the set, though, as it closes with When Doves Cry, a piano-backed commentary on abused children ("but at nights I was his unwilling wife/Mommy pretended this wasn't in her life ... find ways to wear her bashment do/yet have no money to send me to school"). She says "I was not criticising any specific sex. It was my disgust. It was my cry that people will listen to it. At least I used my talents and my writing skills and put up a placard.

"I almost feel like I am starting over my music career. Even in my performances people see it. I am able to do my 'Dutty Wine' and my 'Hot Wuk' and Beyonc walk. I am so happy that my body is able to do it," Ms. Sutherland said.

No contradiction

And she sees no contradiction between the glamour shot on the cover of the album and the thoughtful content. "Why is it that a glamorous woman cannot have depth?" she demanded. "I have been judged all my life by how I look. That is one barrier I want to break. I love my make-up. I love my weave.

"It is that stupidity that is so confining, that is so ridiculous," Sutherland said, commenting that some feel if you are light-skinned you cannot be deep. "I want to be free to be just who I am and not being judged by the external," she said, chuckling as she continued "... if I have to do it in my Gucci and Prada ... To look rootsy and deep, it would be a farce.

"I seem to puzzle people sometimes. I am so busy being myself. It is really funny to me," Ms. Sutherland said. "I am so happy that I have broken my barriers and I can say 'this is me'. I am so happy being me and having a b-l-a-s-t."

- M.C.