Thanks! AFTER ELLEN interviews MICHELLE MALONE

NICHOLAS FOURIEZOS |

As fans watched from the dimly-shaded and flickering candlelit tables, Michelle Malone wooed her way through a charming setlist at the Melting Point Friday night. With a homegrown friendliness — she was raised in nearby Atlanta — and a boisterous confidence bred from a career that has now spanned for more than 20 years, Malone teased and flouted the crowd. “I’ve got a southern love song for y’all,” she said as she plucked her guitar. “It involves the police.”

She moved from somber reflection to rowdy country in a matter of minutes, a duality which wasn’t as jarring as it might have been with another singer. Before “Restraining Order Blues,” she sang a simpler melody — one dedicated to her dad called “Marlboro Man.” “When I was a kid, I thought my daddy was the Marlboro man,” she sang. “He would pick me up in his Chevy truck to spend Friday nights with him.”

Her father didn’t confide in her much then. But that changed with time’s passing. “If he were here, I’d ask him why,” she sang. “Daddy talks more to me now than when he was alive.”

And then back to self-assured and confident, brash and conversational, Malone had the crowd clapping in another folky ditty. “Jesus sitting in Alabama waitin’ on a train,” she sang. “Jesus — a victim of the immigration game.”

Malone has seen her fair share of scenes, playing with John Mayer and Sugarland, Little Feat and ZZ Top, and has received many awards from Atlanta Magazine and Creative Loafing. But Friday night she saw a more intimate scene, a warm atmosphere of Athenians and a comfortable stage from which to sing, laugh and reflect.

Michelle is on the cover of the Georgia Music Magazine this month! Get your copy at www.GeorgiaMusicMag.com.  You can also purchase Michelle’s newest record, “Day 2″ at www.michellemalone.com.