"I decided I wasn't gonna let my background dictate who I am," says Candye Kane, a powerhouse singer whose versatile vocal chords embrace styles from blues to country.

Kane is headlining the Saturday evening lineup at the Mount Helena Music Festival this weekend, July 14-16, in Women's Park.

With songs like "Big Fat Mamas Are Back in Style" and "I'm the Toughest Girl Alive" Kane's musical message is to celebrate who you are, take responsibility for your own happiness and, as another one of her songs goes, "Work What You Got."

And Kane knows a little bit about all of those things.

"There's a lot of power to be gained by saying: ‘This is who I am,' " says Kane, who is probably just as well known for her colorful past as her musical career.

Growing up poor in a Los Angeles ghetto, Kane says she knew she could sing from a very young age, when a family member heard her and commented on her ability.

As a teenager, she appeared on "The Gong Show" and received a scholarship to study opera at USC's Conservatory of Music, but didn't follow through.

"I really didn't want to be an opera singer; I wanted to sing like Linda Ronstadt," says Kane.

Then, at age 16, Kane, like so many other poor girls in her neighborhood, became pregnant.

"And so I had to put my musical aspirations on hold for a while," says Kane.

By the time she was 18, Kane was tired of working dead-end jobs that didn't pay enough to get her off of welfare. So she took a job as a phone sex worker, which she could do from home after her son went to bed.

"It was a really great job," says Kane, who soon learned that girls who were also in print — dubbed "superstars" — got paid better, because it cost more to talk to them.

That was Kane's foray into the adult entertainment industry, and she went on to appear in adult magazines and video and perform in live strip shows around the world.

Coming from where she had, the young Kane thought she had it made.

"I really thought that if I was on the cover of ‘Hustler,' I would be famous," says Kane. "I didn't really see the difference. The moral and ethical line was blurred for me."

According to Kane, her new career gave her tremendous confidence.

"I wasn't just another chubby mom from East L.A.; I was a sex symbol," says Kane.

There was something else it gave her, that she hadn't ever had before: money.

When she wasn't stripping, Kane was hanging around the vibrant Hollywood music scene of the 1980s, putting together bands and booking studio time to further her singing career.

"I could pay musicians when other people could not," says Kane. "Money really makes a difference."

It wasn't long before a label took notice and signed Kane to a development deal. According to Kane, they also pressured her to renounce her past, clean up her act and lose weight, which she was not about to do.

Although Kane was beginning to tire of her career in pornography — which she abandoned soon after — the relationship didn't last long. She lost her contract, and it was a good thing, too, because soon after, she found out she was pregnant with her second child.

Around the same time, Kane discovered the blues, and found her musical home alongside larger than life women with great big voices — just like herself — such as Big Mama Thornton, Etta James and Bessie Smith.

To date, Kane has recorded seven albums and is known as one of the finest blues singers on the circuit.

With a live show she describes as "a revival meeting in the parking lot of an X-rated bookstore," Kane attracts fans of both her music and her message.

She says her songs speak to the disenfranchised, as well as those who have been dealt a tough hand in life.

"Even if the wrong side of town is only a feeling and not the actual place you grew up in," says Kane, whose most memorable performing experiences include gigs at the French Embassy in Rome and just recently at the Cannes Film Festival.

"It's difficult sometimes," admits Kane, who, after seven records, a slew of awards and a tour schedule that would make your head spin, still gets more attention for the career she left over 20 years ago than her music.

"Whether I talk about it or not, it's going to be a topic of discussion," says Kane. "I understand that sex sells."

On the other hand, there's no denying that Kane's saucy — and sometimes raunchy — persona is part of her allure — and her success.

"I do feel like women taking charge of their sexuality is powerful," she says. "I still feel like I'm sexy, even though I'm big."

But Kane says that when she's singing about being big and beautiful, she doesn't really mean that you have to be a certain weight — or a certain anything — to be happy or feel sexy.

"What I'm really saying is we're all OK the way we are and we need to remind ourselves of that every day," Kane said.