Genre: Rock, R&B, Blues

BACK IN THE DAY: The soulful songwriter started singing around the house at 7 years of age before moving on to school choruses and church choirs. She and her brother had bands throughout high school and college, but it wasn’t until her mother passed away that Blu “started getting very aggressive with music.”

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Blu attributes much of her musical abilities to her family — especially her mother, a theatrical vocalist, and her father, a pianist and guitar player from the Bahamas. “A lot of Latin influence came from my father’s side. He played soca and calypso … and my mom, a lot of people said she sounded like Ella Fitzgerald.” Also, her brother is a professional drummer, her sister is a singer and her cousin was a professional jazz bassist.

INFLUENCES: “I loved Billie Holiday growing up. My mother used to listen to her all the time, and I have similar bluesy themes to my voice. Aretha Franklin and Etta James are also in my top three.”

THE ALBUM: Blu released her debut album, “Diamond in the Ruff,” in March and dedicated the soulful R&B work to her sister and cousin, who passed away last summer while Blu was writing and recording. “You have to find a center in your life where you exist throughout everything — tragedies and struggles and setbacks. … That music on ‘Diamond’ is my way of homing in on my own inspirations, aspirations and feelings and sharing it with the world.”

ART IN TRANSIT: When she’s not on stage, Blu works for an off-Broadway theater company and makes the most of her commute to work. “I wrote a lot of the songs on the bus while going to work from Hackensack. I love to be around people and I tap into their energy. I don’t know why, but I can focus so well on the bus or on a subway in New York. Things just come to me there.”

CONNECTIONS: Rus Paul, son of legendary guitarist Les Paul, frequently collaborates with Blu. The pair, who’ll be playing together at Rhodes North Tavern in Sloatsburg on April 29, have also offered each other consolation in the past, as Les Paul died on the same day as Blu’s sister.

THE NAME GAME: Before she was Dali Blu, the singer went by the stage name of Dali West – that is, until she met a music promoter in Teaneck and later looked back at her ancestry. “I met this entertainment promoter, who told me that ‘West’ sounded too country, and I should have something that expressed my bluesy tones. … Ironically enough, my grandmother, she was a healer from the Caribbean, and they called her Auntie Blue – so it became a new name that wasn’t really a new name.”

— Robert Bieselin

– See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/arts-and-entertainment/introducing-dali-blu-1.199795#sthash.r3ZDaHIw.dpuf