It's been a rapid trajectory this year for the 28-year-old, but Little's no overnight sensation. She's been singing - jazz, blues, pop - since she was 16, and her unwavering goal has been to "Follow That Sound," as she declares on the opening track of her CBS debut, Perfect Time For A Breakdown. She's a soulful, bluesy singer, equally adept at yearning ballads such as "Piece," rave-up horn-powered R&B like "Spaceship," and smooth and sexy pop like "Ooh Wee." She fits better in the earthy tradition of Bonnie Raitt, Joan Osborne or her favorite, Eva Cassidy, than in the current crop of Amy Winehouse wannabes.

Little recorded most of Perfect Time in February at the house of Scot Sax, late of Philly power popsters Wanderlust. How she ended up opening for two legends is part coincidence, part karma. Larry Jenkins, the new head of CBS, is also T Bone Burnett's manager, and he passed an advance of Little's album to Burnett, the musical director for the Raising Sand project, who happened to be looking for an opening act for the tour. He shared the CD with Plant and Krauss, and then Plant called Jenkins and said that they wanted her on the tour.

"I started crying when I found out," Little says on the phone between tour stops in Texas. "It's like a shock. I was chosen by the artists themselves, and I said, even if I didn't get to go on tour with them, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss and T Bone Burnett heard my music! That alone is wonderful. Every day, I say to myself, even if this is the last day of the tour, I feel like I succeeded no matter what."

Still, it's not an entirely cushy gig.

"The opening act is definitely a job. Especially when the standard is Robert Plant," she says, laughing.