As Georgia as Lizz Wright is, you don't hear it in her almost French-sounding speaking voice.

Instead, it's in the languid beauty of the love songs on her third and most recent album, "The Orchard." And it's definitely in the stories the now-Brooklyn-based singer shared before her homecoming tonight.

Among them . . .

> On her hometown: "Hahira, as I remember it, is hard to explain," Wright says of the South Georgia town near the Florida border. "There's a lot of family history on the land where my grandmother is. American history, too. I feel very connected to that piece of the Earth, to the point that I don't even understand it. I love the woods. [Drifts off ...] And my grandmother —- she's so happy her road is about to get paved over, and I'm absolutely devastated.

"I remember taking the art director and the crew down there the first time, for [her first album] 'Salt,' and they said. 'I really understand you now. I really feel you. These trees. The air. I really get it.'

"My friends really hear my Southernness when I talk to my grandmother on the phone. But yeah, I do get that a lot —- that I don't sound it. My father, he was a public speaker. And he would always tell us, 'Don't sound like you're Southern, or people will think you don't know anything.' So now my brother, my sister, we all don't. I speak very, very plain English —- which has come to be a good thing. But I also wish he had given me a break on that. Where I come from and what it means is all very precious."

> On Atlanta: "The Atlanta music scene is a huge part of my life," continues Wright, who moved here to attend Georgia State University, where she studied voice. "It's like a family. Everybody knows everybody.

"And around [the Midtown Atlanta jazz club] Churchill Grounds, everyone took it upon themselves to teach me something. . . . There was Bernard Linnette, a drummer, who gave me a notebook of music. And told me about Little Jimmy Scott. That first night —- when I was too young to even be in there —- I was introduced to [pianist] Kenny Banks. And asked to sit in with In the Spirit. That was very, very huge for me as a musician; and a person. A lot of things started with Churchill Grounds. Everybody was watching out for me in the Atlanta jazz community, and I am always going to be so thankful. And feel so, so many gifts. So many."

> On leaving, and returning: "But there was a moment when I went home for a year of school. I couldn't stand it —- it was crazy —- and I ended moving to Macon, Ga. Working at Geico as an insurance agent. Living in an apartment by myself. Listening to Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter. Eating Ramen noodles. And I was starting to think for the first time, 'You know, I don't need to achieve these things in a certain time period.' I was stopping the clock, I guess. But I started driving back [and forth] to Atlanta, and eventually made my way back."

CONCERT PREVIEW

Lizz Wright with Heston

Doors open at 8 tonight at Center Stage, 1374 W. Peachtree St., Atlanta. Tickets, $21 at Ticketmaster, 404-249-6400 or www.ticketmaster.com.

Information: www.centerstage-atlanta.com.