Family guy

R&B singer embraces traditional values, and it's getting noticed

Sitting in the No. 2 spot on Billboard's adult R&B charts - several notches above Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige, Al Green, and Usher - is a new song with an old soul called "The River." The tune has a gospel, almost hymn-like flavor. The singer sounds more like Sam Cooke than Jaheim. And the lyrics celebrate a slice of life that's pretty much unheralded in modern urban music.

"I held my breath when they dipped my head/ Then I came up shiny and new/ Found out about love in the back of my Impala/

Where they laid my grandfather, too/ Down by the river/ Where black folks gather after Sunday service is through," goes one verse of Noel Gourdin's first single.

"The River" surprised a whole lot of people with its trip to the top of the charts - not least the executives at Epic Records, who shelved Gourdin's debut album more than a year ago.

"The label was unsure. Compared to what's out there the record goes against the grain," says Gourdin, a Brockton native who now lives in Roslindale. "It's so family-oriented, and they were scared to put it out."

That Gourdin's wholesome value system inspires fear in the music industry is a conversation all by itself. Suffice it to say the 26-year-old artist wears his affection for old-school sounds and virtues like a badge of honor. Riffing on the common wisdom that artists should aspire to the cutting edge, Gourdin titled his debut "After My Time."

The album isn't a throwback, though. Gourdin and his main collaborator, Tommy Olivera, part of the Trakaddix production team, merged the artist's soul-man instincts with the producer's hip-hop flavors and came up with a sound that bridges the eras. With the massive success of the single - thanks largely to the efforts of radio host Steve Harvey, who heard "The River" on satellite radio and has championed the song with missionary zeal on his syndicated morning show - Epic is releasing "After My Time" today.

"We went from thinking we might be dropped to this album release so, yes, it feels like the stars are lining up," says Gourdin, on the phone from Huntsville, Ala., where he's visiting his parents. "I'm grateful that I feel free and able to make music that means something to me."

Much of the meaning in Gourdin's music and his life can be traced back to his childhood. Gourdin's early years were tumultuous. There was never much money but Gourdin, the youngest of three children, found something far more valuable in his family's strong roots.

"My mom was in an abusive marriage and my biological dad denied me at birth," Gourdin explains. "My stepdad took us all in. He didn't have to do that. He's my only father, and what I am as a man is what he made me. My pop worked nights and my mom worked days at a meat factory. But I had a childhood, which a lot of kids don't. My cousins and I rode bikes and played sports and were raised to be respectful."

During the summer the extended clan of aunts, uncles, and cousins, many living in Brockton, would drive "six cars deep" down to his grandmother's house outside of Biloxi, Miss., listening to soul music mix-tapes.

"I didn't listen to hip-hop," Gourdin says. "At home I used to roll by and pick up my friends, and they were like, 'Don't you ever listen to new music?' I grew up on all of that old music, and I thank my pop and mom every day for that."

When Gourdin was 17, he had saved enough money to buy a beat machine and started working on his own music in earnest in his basement. Several years later he started performing in public: at the city's annual Summer Sunday in the Park series, at the clubs Progressions and Romans and the Brockton YMCA, "any spot that would have me." In 2002 family friend Larry "Lucky" Fernandes became Gourdin's manager. Fernandes is effusive about Gourdin's talent and cautiously optimistic about the album's prospects.

"If we get the right push from the label, I don't see why we can't go platinum," he says. "The problem is Epic is a pop label, they deal with Menudo, and Noel is a soul artist. I don't know much about rock, but if you gave me Van Halen, I would know they're gonna be huge and it would have my full support, even if I didn't know what to do with it. The next thing for Noel to do is link up with a really good tour and spend a year on the road, connecting the dots. Right now Noel's song is bigger than he is. We need Noel to be bigger than his songs."

Meanwhile, Gourdin is fielding daily e-mails from young mothers and teenagers and senior citizens, all singing the praises of "The River." He's hit a nerve with a celebration of community, and while the suits might be shaking their heads, Gourdin isn't surprised.

"I really do think there's a niche that's not being filled," he says. "I believe people want music that has meaning."

Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com. For more on music, go to boston.com/ae/ music/blog.