Noëlle Hampton is a comeback story of sorts -- about an artist who, not long after her live debut on the stage of the legendary Sweetwater club, was featured on the very first Itunes commercial (along with Iggy Pop and Barry White,) won a slot on the Lilith Fair, and opened for Bob Dylan, Wilco, Chris Isaak and Richard Thompson to name a few. With her self-produced debut Under These Skies, the ingénue won praise as one of the best Bay Area artists, receiving a nomination for the California Music Awards as outstanding female singer alongside Gwen Stefani, radio airplay, and entertained record label inquiries.

But that was 2001, on the edge of the end of the dot.com era, and the center of the shift of the music business. She got the message from most record labels that they ‘had enough Sheryl Crow’s’ -- not to mention, San Francisco wasn’t the most affordable place to live for a burgeoning artist. After a few years of touring, Noëlle and her husband and music partner Andre Moran relocated to the artist haven of Austin – and in the intervening year of settling in, a deep depression settled in as well. “I thought I might never play music again, and felt forgotten.”

But then everything changed. A unexpected request for one of her songs from a major network television show was the first step out of her hole, quickly followed by renowned producer Mark Hallman (Carole King, Ani DiFranco, Eliza Gilkyson), drawing Noëlle back into the studio to record Thin Line, out August 18.

With a voice that sparkles, Noëlle fuses roots rock with deft songcraft and hints of country and the alternative rock of her late teens. On the title track a dirty guitar riff introduces a song that Noëlle sings almost as a duet with herself – about the complex walls in relationships, born of our own fears and of our own making. “I originally didn’t want to use a song as the title of the record,” says Noëlle. “I had so much fun making the record that I thought I finally created an upbeat album. Then I realized that overall there was such a statement of the fragility of love, life and death going on and that in fact, this was a pretty intense body of work. So, I re-examined the song titles and thought that ‘Thin Line’ spoke volumes about what the whole CD was about.”

“Blackwing Butterfly” is the most folky and country-sounding song on the record, both in lyric and arrangement, but it doesn’t sound like a death song with its sunny swinging harmony, accordion and Cajun-influenced electric guitar. “It was the first song I wrote after moving to Austin. I was taking a walk in my neighborhood and saw a bunch of these little black butterflies, and I began to think about the notion that this creature that is usually full of color, was a bit ominous in black. I wondered if they were some sort of envoy of death...little blackwing butterflies that take you over to the other side. I wrote the whole song while I was on my walk and when I got back I put it to music.”

“Danny” is pure southern rock opera, about a real-life former stalker, but with a more deadly fictional ending. And Noëlle’s love of the big lush sounds of Daniel Lanois, Tom Petty and Mark Knopfler is evident on the dramatically smoldering “Firecracker,” with echo-like blues guitar underscoring her contemplative vocal. The album closes with the only cover, a gorgeous reworking of U2’s “Love is Blindness.” “When I heard that song again (it had been years,) I immediately heard our version in my head. I felt so connected to those words. The themes in the song fall right into place with the themes of the whole record.”

With the release of Thin Line, Noëlle is working with the power-indie-distributor Burnside and planning a fall tour and a radio push. It is a comeback story of sorts, but a very personal one. “It’s like the six degrees of separation from the music business,” says Noëlle. I have felt like I am one degree of separation from a ‘successful’ music career for many years now, but somehow that one degree has kept me going, keeps me working hard. But most importantly, it keeps me humble and it keeps me grateful.”