Signed to L.A.-based label SideOneDummy, known more for rock groups like Flogging Molly, The Gaslight Anthem and Gogol Bordello than Americana roots singer-songwriters, Audra Mae is not as out of place as it would seem. After five years working her way through the local L.A. club scene, Audra found exactly what she was looking for in the fiercely independent record company.

“I just waited for someone that wasn’t going to try to change me,” she says in a lilting southwestern twang. “And this label was just, ‘Go for it… We love you.’  Several companies wanted me to be just one part of myself, and not the others.  My music touches on many different genres and I needed time to realize I’m all of those things.  A few of the other acts on SideOneDummy that started out punk are now getting into the acoustic thing, like [Hot Water Music’s] Chuck Ragan.”

In fact, Audra Mae joined Ragan’s second annual Revival Tour as its only female artist, holding her own in front of audiences nightly.

SideOneDummy’s Bill Armstrong and Joe Sib first discovered Audra Mae when they walked into a Los Angeles club and saw her “tear the roof off the place,” adding, “She has a once-in-a-generation voice. We thought this isn’t punk rock in sound, but it is in attitude. Shortly after that we got together with Audra and asked her if she would be interested in working together. She came over to SideOne, hung out for a bit and it felt like a good fit. We couldn’t be more excited to be a part of Audra’s story.”

Audra’s debut album The Happiest Lamb with producer Ted Hutt (Flogging Molly, Gaslight Anthem, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones), follows the release of her five-song Haunt EP last fall. The album spotlights Audra Mae’s incredible voice and her songs, timeless affairs augmented with minimal accompaniment, including acoustic guitar and often a mournful accordion. The title track is a playful parable told from the perspective of a little lamb who follows a shepherd, until she realizes, “There were all kinda other little pretty young sheep/Havin’ all kinda pretty young fun” and that “No shepherd man alive/Can grow the wool that gets him paid.” She finally goes her own way, chanting, “Hallelujah, I am/The Happiest Lamb”.

“Bandida” is a haunting Appalachian mountain song that could’ve been written anytime over the last century, while the guilt-ridden “The River” is about washing away your sins and being “born again tomorrow.” “Smoke” is a murder ballad (“Fire on the hill/Blood on the ground/Not what you’d see/On the good side of town”) with the fatalistic refrain, “All the plans he made himself/May as well be smoke.” “My Lonely Worry” is a country-style plaint about an absent love (“Don’t go finding someone to pass your time/And leave you blind to me”), while the seemingly autobiographical “Millionaire” is the perfect tale for these recessionary times, starting with a look back: “When I was a little girl/My momma cried/If only we had cold, hard cash/Barbie dolls and lemonade/We sold it all/And all we made was gone so fast,” only to conclude “A rich man today/Is a poor man tomorrow.” “The Fable,” with its dramatic, girl group sound and Shangri-Las-style narrative, shows Audra Mae’s unique storytelling style, while her mesmerizing cover of Dolly Parton’s “Little Sparrow” demonstrates her interpretive skills.

Perhaps the album’s centerpiece is “Sullivan’s Letter,” based on a famous missive written by Civil War general Sullivan Ballou, who was killed at the first battle of Bull Run, to his wife. Audra Mae discovered it on the back of a piece of music she was given by her father, incorporating romantic lines like “When the breeze/Brushes against your cheek/Heaven is sending you my breath,” says Audra. “I just cried whenever I read it. His words were so powerful.”

Growing up, show business was in Audra Mae’s blood going back to Vaudeville.   Her great grandmother, Virginia, was a member of The Gumm Sisters, who’s youngest member, Francis Ethel Gumm, grew up to be Judy Garland.  Her paternal grandmother turned her on to country and folk artists like Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton and Woody Guthrie, while her maternal grandfather introduced her to jazz.

By the time she was 17, Audra Mae had taught herself to play guitar and piano. She went to Middle Tennessee State University for a year, flunked out, and moved to California, arriving January 8, 2004, Elvis Presley’s birthday, with $20 in her pocket.

In five years Audra Mae has landed publishing deal with Warner Chappell, a TV placement singing Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” on the FX series Sons of Anarchy,  a deal with Side One Dummy Records, and in late 2009, wrote the lyrics to “Who I Was Born to Be”, (music by Swedish songwriter trio, Play Production) the only original track on Susan Boyle’s chart-topping, 9 million-selling I Dreamed a Dream album, and it has turned out to be a dream come true for the 25-year-old singer-songwriter.

“I had no idea that it would be like this,” she says. “It’s a crazy twist of fate.”

After finishing up The Happiest Lamb, Audra Mae is set to do what she does best—perform and entertain people in person.