Philadelphia Weekly

"I'm standing in the parking lot of an IHOP in Texas," says singer Nicole Atkins, who grew up in Neptune City, which is next to Asbury Park, which is down the shore a bit farther than most Philadelphians generally travel. "Touring sure is glamorous."

Two years ago Atkins, 28, was named an artist to watch by Rolling Stone, where she was described as "a laid-back Jersey girl who was equally into hair metal and her grandmother's Johnny Cash records."

Now, though, with the release of Neptune City--a haunting and deep-throated soul, blues and country homage, in large part, to the Jersey shore--things have changed. Reviewers have upped the ante since the early Rolling Stone mention. Atkins is now often described as a female Roy Orbison, maybe produced by Phil Spector, maybe with words and imagery borrowed from David Lynch.

The songs on Neptune City (she's backed by the talented band the Sea) simply don't evoke the same Fourth of July tilt-o-whirl Asbury Park/Jersey shore fandango Springsteen celebrated in song in the late '70s.

"Springsteen and I grew up in the same place but in way different times," Atkins says. "He was around for the heyday of the boardwalk. I was there for the reconstruction of the boardwalk after the riots. My time was a little darker."

But it's the very gloomy off-season aspects of growing up at the Jersey shore that Atkins finds coolly romantic. It's clearly what's captured her songwriting imagination.

"Living there you can come down with seasonal affective disorder," she says. "But that lonesome emotion and isolation makes you feel kind of okay too. There's no pressure to go, go, go like there is when you're at the shore in the summer. There's nowhere to go in the off-season. You can just sit by the water and watch the fog roll in. Not so bad, really."

Atkins, who's prospered mightily from both a spirited appearance on Letterman (documented on YouTube) and generous praise from the music elites, says there will no doubt be more Jersey shore songs in the future.

"Songwriting is about who you are," she says. "I write about other places and things besides the Jersey shore, but I spent my whole life there. My family is there. There's so much good fodder. The stories that sometimes emerge from a night of drinking alone down there is worthy of song."

On the road for a few more weeks (she's been gulping vitamins after suffering two bouts of bronchitis), Atkins reports the crowds at her appearances to date have been larger and more diverse than she'd anticipated--"girls with their moms, old people, metalhead dudes, all kinds. This is our first time touring," she says. "So I wasn't sure anybody would come out."

She's noticed one other thing about her audience too. "They make out a lot," she laughs. "At almost every stop. They dance slow and then next thing they start kissing."

In the days ahead Atkins will be touring Georgia and the Carolinas, then making a stop in D.C., before ending her tour in Philly on March 25.

"I expect I'll have a full-grown beard by then," she laughs.

Nicole Atkins and the Sea

Tues., March 25, 8pm. $15-$17. With Parlor Mob. World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St. 215.222.1400. www.worldcafelive.com