Homecoming for onetime Roanoker Rene Marie was about more than singing and seeing family and friends.

It was also a chance for her to tell about 650 people at Jefferson Center’s Shaftman Hall, "Hey, y’all!"

"I haven’t been able to say y’all since I moved to Colorado," Marie told the crowd, to laughs. "It feels so good."

Then her emotionally expressive voice, with all its wonderful ranges, made the crowd feel good.

On the first night of an international tour for her "Voice of My Beautiful Country" show, she showed that two years off the road have not dampened her formidable chops. And in bringing one of her sons, Michael Croan, onstage to help her sing tunes that speak to her about her homeland, Marie showed that her family’s talent does not stop with her.

Toward the end of her set, she introduced the crowd to a family she just met. She talked about her performance on Thursday evening at Total Action Against Poverty’s Transitional Living Center, where people who are homeless can come to stay while they get back on their feet. She recalled that during that show, she asked if anyone in the room liked to sing. All the members of a family raised their hands.

Those children could sing, "and their mama, too," Marie said, then she called up the mother, Dominique, and daughter Jana and son James. They sang sweet soul-gospel harmonies on Eric Bibb and Charlotte Hoglund’s "Don’t Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down." As Croan sang the verses over a slinky shuffle, Marie and her new friends responded, singing the song’s title.

This young family has gone through some difficulty, obviously. But true to the song, their spirits were high, their smiles were bright.

One-time Radford resident Stephanie Rooker and her band opened the show with a short, tight set. Rooker, who now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., led her group, including sister Jen Rooker, through songs that included some tightly syncopated jazz-funk and sweet ballads. Rooker wrote one of the ballads, "Won’t Go Away," about younger brother Jason, who died a dozen years ago after suffering a brain injury.

Rooker’s range isn’t the widest, but her voice is strong and pretty, and she uses the notes at her disposal to dial in well the emotion of her lyrics.