Ray Charles didn't need to meet singer Tracey Whitney to know she was his ideal back-up singer. Called to audition for The Raylettes (Ray Charles' backing group), Tracey left her demo tape behind when Ray Charles didn't make it to the meeting. Later that day, his management called to say Tracey had landed the gig! "Ray just listened to my demo tape and said, 'She's got it!'" recalls Tracey. "Four days later, I was onstage singing with him at the Hollywood Bowl."

Luckily, Tracey was no stranger to the stage. At the age of eleven, she debuted at the famous Coconut Grove in Los Angeles as a member of The Whitney Family, along with her seven brothers and sisters and parents. For over a decade, The Whitney Family toured the world, recorded albums and made guest appearances on TV."My parents were both singers, and all of us kids came out singing," Tracey says. After leaving the family band, Tracey continued performing both in Los Angeles and, for five years, in Japan.

After years of sharing the spotlight, Tracey Whitney is now taking center stage. On her solo debut album, "Love...A Fable in 9 Acts," her rich, sultry voice seduces and soothes, revealing a lifelong vocal mastery without turning showy or self-indulgent. A return to the soulful love songs of yesteryear, the R&B-infused record celebrates romance, turning heartache into hope, and prompting even the most jaded listener to believe in love again. It's a classic and timeless approach to songwriting that Tracey makes fresh with her infectious devotion to romance. "I'm inspired by songwriters who are doing something that's almost old-fashioned," she says. "I want my music to tell a story."

Like her much revered influences Aretha Franklin and Roberta Flack, Tracey's songs tell of love lost and rediscovered, the exquisite pain and undeniable glory found in giving your heart to another. On the breezy and wistful "A Woman in Love" we meet a heartbroken heroine who spends her days longing for her man to come back home. In the chorus, Tracey cautions, "You better love your lady/And make it last forever," a gentle warning that calls on all of us to praise the sacredness of love. By the next track, "Welcome to my Life," she is serenading a newfound paramour, proclaiming her joy and rapture so ardently it's impossible to not feel renewed and exhilarated. And "Love...A Fable in 9 Acts" certainly isn't lacking in the steamy side of soul and R&B either. Tracey's cover of Barry White's "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More" heats things up with a sophisticated sensuality that honors the original's irresistible luster and stirs in her own signature allure.

Throughout "Love...A Fable in 9 Acts," Tracey entices and enchants with her stunning command of harmony, a vocal finesse first honed by her family (including an aunt who performed with Stevie Wonder) and later perfected in her work with Ray Charles. "When I first started singing with Ray, my harmonic sense was already very solid from performing with my family for so long," says Tracey, who sang the fourth part in The Raylettes' five-part harmony. "But touring with him expanded my original concept of harmony, which had always been so valuable to me, and singing the fourth part forced me to hear bigger harmonies than I'd originally heard in my head....Working with Ray was tough, but I'm so grateful for the experience."

As executive producer, vocal arranger/producer and writer, Tracey's "Love...A Fable in 9 Acts" features her co-producer Herman "Hollywood" Dawkings on piano, synthesizers and percussion, contributing producer and engineer Cario Johnson, her brothers Phillip on acoustic and electric guitar and Ray on acoustic guitar and bass, Tim Anderson on saxophone and Irene Scott on violin. The musicians grace the record with an elegant touch of jazz, a genre that Tracey Whitney always turns to for inspiration for her breathtaking harmonies. "I love John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and so many of the old jazz masters," she says. "When I listen to their music, I keep going, 'Ooh, listen to that horn, or did you hear the chords that piano just played? Did you hear that guitar?' My love for jazz and my love for R&B female vocalists really come together to influence the melodies that I hear in my head."

Like Sade, Tracey Whitney uses that jazz-inflected sound as a backdrop for her smooth vocal style, an intoxicating formula that sublimely complements her soul-affirming lyrics. For anyone fed up with what she calls the "wham, bam, thank you, ma'am" approach to pop music, "Love...A Fable in 9 Acts" should bring sweet relief. "What I'm trying to create with my music is that old-school kind of romantic feel," Tracey says. "I'm singing for people who want what I consider to be real songs, who need to hear that romance in their music again."