Tony Falsetto 

Once he opens his mouth, however, you start to come around.

Equal parts Bill Withers and Bill Bellamy, Hamilton was signed to Atlanta hit-maker Jermaine Dupri's So So Def imprint after Dupri's father, Michael Mauldin, saw the Charlotte native perform at a pre-Grammy Awards brunch in 2002. After hearing Hamilton, Dupri supposedly inked him within 48 hours.

It all sounds simple, doesn't it? Man gets chance, man delivers, man hooks up with record label with more street cred than Tony Soprano. And it would be, were it that Hamilton hadn't actually worked to get to that point for almost a decade before his "break" came. Before Dupri, break might as well been spelled "broke" to Anthony Hamilton.

As with many soul singers, Hamilton first caught the love bug as a youth when he started singing in his church choir. As a teen, Hamilton performed in area nightclubs and talent shows, along with friends like K-Ci and JoJo (Jodeci). "I outgrew that real quick, though," Hamilton said in his 2003 bio. "I knew I had to leave Charlotte to make it in the music business."

In 1993, Hamilton headed for New York City, where he signed with Andre Harrell's then-red-hot Uptown Records, the world's foremost purveyors of what was then known as New Jack Swing. Along with fellow Carolinians Jodeci and Horace Brown, Hamilton seemed set for a full-scale attack on the pop charts.

Unfortunately, it was over before it began. The fledgling label folded before his debut record could be released, so Hamilton then signed on with MCA, which put out the record he recorded for Uptown -- XTC -- and then promptly slept on it. While the record appeared nationwide thanks to the label's gargantuan distribution networks, it was minimally promoted and soon made more cutout bins than the entire discography of Mike and the Mechanics.

After regrouping, Hamilton paired himself with Harrell once again -- this time at the short-lived Harrell Entertainment -- before signing on with Soulife Entertainment, a company helmed by another pair of former Charlotteans, Mark Sparks and Chris Dawley. While stalled on the Soulife assembly line -- the company was putting most of its efforts into breaking an artist named Sunshine Anderson -- he recorded another album's worth of material, as well as new songs for Anderson and another artist, Donell Jones.

In 2000, Hamilton signed as a touring backup singer with the red-hot D'Angelo, then being touted as the next great hope in contemporary soul. After returning from the road, Hamilton found that Soulife's plug had been pulled due to a lack of funds. Doing what he could to keep himself visible, Hamilton sang hooks for artists like Eve, Pimp My Ride's Xzibit, and the posthumous-yet-prolific Tupac Shakur.

In 2002 -- after singing the chorus on the breakout single "Po' Folks" by brothers-in-(f)arms The Nappy Roots -- he finally received the opportunity he was looking for. This is how he was now referring to such things -- opportunities. "Breaks" were for bones, and Hamilton, deep down in his, knew he still had something to offer.

Though now based in Harlem, Hamilton still has fond memories of Charlotte and his time here. A former barber before he left for New York, he still takes many of the same lessons he learned from his day job to his nighttime one, as he told Interview magazine last year. "My music is like the perfect haircut -- A Friday night cut! It makes you feel like wanting to put on some nice clothes to go out and have a good time."

Of his singing style, he's said in numerous interviews that his biggest influence wasn't Gaye or Bobby Womack or Donny Hathaway, but "common folk" like "the loud guy in church" or, as he told Oneworld magazine, the Charlotte-area "wine drinkers in front of the liquor store who were always humalanging -- you know, singing with a long hum."

Those sounds, and those memories, are very important to Hamilton. Now in a position to finally make the record he'd heard in his head all these years, he worked tirelessly to create the soundtrack to the movie of his life. Equal parts old-school grooves and country soul rumblers, Comin' From Where I'm From features a number of producers and musicians he's crossed paths with along the way, most notably Mark Babson, Cebb Solo and James Poyser from the Soulquarians collective. Shedding the labels of NeoSoul and "Alternative Soul" he'd been branded with by the major-label artist ranchers, Hamilton created a country crunk style all his own, featuring wah-wah guitar, piano, church organs and plenty of Jodeci-style bass pump.

"My album is honest soul music," Hamilton told VH1 as his record was being released. "The records are straight to the point, raw, and organic. It's not "neo.' When I think of "neo,' I think of neon, like it's gon' glow in the dark or something. My shit ain't glowin' in the dark; it's just really good music."

And good music to Anthony Hamilton -- an acknowledged Jonny Lang fan -- isn't something that can be easily labeled. To him, good music is something that can't be stopped, or even helped. "Good music" to Anthony Hamilton is the music of the past, seen through the eyes of the present, and projected into the future.

Comin' to where you're from, to put it another way.

Anthony Hamilton plays the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre on Saturday along with Maze featuring Frankie Beverly and Gerald Levert. Call 704-522-6500 for up-to-date ticket information.