Cyndi Lauper takes a blues interlude

Who has a soft spot for Cyndi Lauper these days?

Apparently everyone. The flame-haired singer who proclaimed “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and stole hearts with ballads “Time After Time” and “True Colors” back in the 1980s is experiencing a renaissance of sorts.

Fresh from hanging with “The Donald” this spring on “The Celebrity Apprentice,” Lauper, who turned 57 in June, recently sang with Haitian hip-hopper Wyclef Jean on “The Late Show with David Letterman” and got chummy with Lady Gaga after the two posed for MAC Cosmetics’ latest AIDS Fund ad campaign. She also just inked deals with Simon & Shuster for a soon-to-be-released autobiography and with TV producer Mark Burnett (“Survivor”) for an upcoming reality series.

And, yes, this consummate New Yorker’s still got it going on, musically: After revisiting her catalog on 2005’s stripped-back “The Body Acoustic” and dabbling in dance for 2008’s “Bring Ya to the Brink,” Lauper went down to Memphis earlier this year to record with the likes of blues guitar god B.B. King, soul legend Ann Peebles and New Orleans’ organ master Allen Toussaint. The result, “Memphis Blues,” should excite longtime fans and turn heads with her inimitable voice on new takes of classics such as “Crossroads” and “Down Don’t Bother Me.”

Her appearance tonight at Atlanta’s Chastain Park Amphitheatre will include her blues repertoire as well as her best-loved hits.

Before she left for the road, Lauper called from New York to chat about singing the blues.

Q: What was it like being in Memphis to record this album? Had you spent any time there before?

A: I hadn’t spent any time there, just through tours. But Memphis is a city that feels like a town. They have a trolley — very nice. No matter where you go, they always got great music playing. And they love their food. Everywhere we’d go, I’d hear, “Cyn, we got some fried chicken for ya.” And barbecue. And they’re very proud of their cornbread.

Q: Had you known some of these blues songs all your life?

A: Some I knew. But I’ve been listening to blues since I wanted to do this album for six years, so I researched.

Q: There are so many great players on this record, how did you manage the song arrangements while recording at Scott Bomar’s famous Electraphonic studios in Memphis?

A: I do it on my feet. I hate the sheet music stuff. I want you to use your heart, your ears. Let’s all be connected. Let’s fall into a spell. Let’s do that thing where we don’t know what’s gonna happen. Just like on “Early in the Morning,” I told Allen [Toussaint] about the character in the song. She’s coming home late at night, those horns are the drunken background singers. This guy is this one, and so on. I didn’t hear Allen as the [background] piano. I heard it more like a duet. Everything I’m singing is all for Allen, and Lester [Snell, former Stax Records keyboardist], and Howard [Grimes, veteran drummer] and it’s kind of [arranged] to the interior rhythm of those guys. It’s hard for me to tell those guys what to do. [Laughs.] But we all brought the stuff that we knew, and the combination of us made “Memphis Blues.”