TIMES UNION: Shannon McNally at Helsinki Hudson

Singer/songwriter Shannon McNally certainly has to be one of the best-kept secrets in music. For a moment she was almost a pop star with a popular video of her majestic song "Now That I Know" in regular rotation, but she soon found her true calling in roots Americana music.

The Hempstead, Long Island, native sang in clubs and then on the streets of Paris as a busker before getting a record deal in 1997, but didn't release her rootsy "Jukebox Sparrows" till 2002. She opened for John Mellencamp and released the bluesier "Geronimo" in 2005, building up a core cult following. After taking a few years off following the birth of her first child, McNally is hitting the road again. Her latest release is the more avant-garde "Western Ballad."

McNally has an earthy voice, an organic approach to blues-based music that's simply magical. She may even inherit the "cosmic country" moniker that the late Gram Parsons left behind with her mysterious-yet-spirited Americana fare. In Hudson, she'll be bringing her band Smoke Signals: Will Sexton (guitar) Susan Holmes (bass) Wallace Lester (drums) and McNally on guitar and dreamy vocals.