Corinne Bailey Rae Returns to the Spotlight

British singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae burst onto the music scene with her self-titled debut in 2006. It entered United Kingdom charts at No. 1, went platinum and earned her three Grammy nominations. Now, four years and four million album sales later, comes the long-awaited second album, "The Sea."

Bailey Rae, of Leeds, England, has come out with a new collection of songs about hope and grief, inspiration and despair, love and loss. It also about a family tragedy: Bailey Rae's maternal grandfather died in a boating accident.

According to her official biography, Bailey Rae says, "It was a family story that I had grown up with and never asked much about, but I had never realized that my aunt had been there, on the beach, when it happened."

Last month, Bailey Rae launched her first North American tour in three years. She says she loves the U.S.

She told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez, "It's been a long time between time between those two records, so we're great to be back and having a lot of fun seeing the country."

Bailey Rae said her tour so far has been a diverse mix of sights and venues.
"We went to San Francisco and had a few gorgeous hot days there, and we've been here in New York, we played a really small show in Williamsburg," she said. "But, yeah, we've been all over the place. We played in a huge church in L.A. ... It's been amazing to see the audiences and they're so mixed from all different backgrounds and all different ages. So it's great to sort of see because you never know what you're going to connect with."

Bailey Rae said she enjoys seeing people sing the songs back to her at her shows.

Rodriguez asked, "So do you mind if we sing along?"

She said, "I'll be expecting it."

On "The Early Show," Bailey Rae performed "Closer" from her new album and her mega-hit "Put Your Records On."