Once you get beyond the awe of Phat Man Dee, you quickly realize she has a positive personality and can really sing. Really.

Margaret Stanley Phat Man Dee knows how to carry a torch. Click photo for larger image. Phat Man Dee 'Torch of Blue' CD Release Party Where: Rex Theatre, South Side. When: Tonight. Doors open at 8 p.m. Admission: $20 and $10 for students and starving artists. 412-481-6681. Listen In: Hear song excerpts from the Phat Man Dee CD "Torch of Blue": "Gandhi Lives" "King of the Flower Men" "Jones Beach" "Poly Resin Icon" Hear Phat Man Dee discussing "Torch of Blue" with the PG's Nate Guidry: The inspiration for the CD On "King of the Flower Men" and "Gandhi Lives," both written by her husband Tommy Amoeba

All you need to do is check out "Jones Beach" and "T.G.I.D.K.U," two songs from "Torch of Blue," her latest recording.

It combines elements of jazz with Middle Eastern hooked rhythms, electronic music and mandolin guitar, poetry and improvisation. Eclectic to say the least, but Man Dee keeps it interesting and funny. She sings of Gandhi being alive and living in a hotel and raps about lies and propaganda.

"Ah, for crying out loud, Peaches," she screams on the song "Polly Resin Icon."

The album features mostly original material, with the exception of "Ay Linda Amiga" and "Dona Nobis Pacem," two songs that were written in the 15th century.

"I really wanted this CD to focus on musicians from Pittsburgh playing music from Pittsburgh," said Man Dee, who was in New York attending the Coney Island Mermaid parade. "There are musicians in my immediate community that I really respect. Tony Depaolis assembled some of the best musicians in Pittsburgh, and his touch on the recording turned it into blue gold."

South Sider Man Dee said she, her husband, Tommy Amoeba, and friends marched in the Coney Island parade as bottom-feeders. She said Amoeba was dressed as a giant squid while she donned a vampire-spider queen costume.

"It was fun," she said. "We walked and sang calypso tunes."

"Torch of the Blue," which consists of 16 songs, was supposed to be the title of Man Dee's 2001 recording, but she said the band wasn't feeling the music when they entered the studio.

"We recorded the day after 9/11, and we were all in a terrible head space," she said. "We could barely function. We wouldn't have gone into the studio but I had already paid for it."

Six-years later, the band is feeling the music, and "Torch of Blue" is a wonderful document for a musician who is not so quietly carving out her own musical territory.

Recorded at George Heid studio in Aspinwall, the album features Colter Harper, Chris Parker, Kenny Peagler, Mike Murray, Jacob Yoffee, Paul Leech and Simon Jaeger. Man Dee said she has worked before with many of the musicians selected to perform on the recording.

And that's obvious, because the chemistry is great throughout, particularly on "Gandhi Lives!," which is a combination of jazz and bluegrass.

"I try to make a point of performing original material," she said. "As much as I love the standards, and I don't know as many standards as I should, but people seem to enjoy my music."

Man Dee said she performed "Gandhi Lives!" at a roller rink in Harmarville last week and more than a 1,000 people were there enjoying the music. "They were clapping and having a good time," she said.

Another fan favorite is "Two Tone Tattoo,"' a song Man Dee performed a decade ago with Big Daddy Bull Seal.

"He and I had a performed in a troupe a decade ago where we would do weird performance poetry with lots of drumming, and I played cello. That was one of our popular tunes but it was never recorded."

Anyone who has followed the career of Man Dee knows she's a little different.

But she's also a charismatic artist with a clear sense of musical purpose.