Sam Phillips . . . Toni Childs . . . and Betsy : <i> A periodic look at who’s making news in pop music. </i> : A Childs’ Gift

“It’s like with a lover,” says singer Toni Childs, comparing signing with a record company to a budding, unrealistic romance. “People can project images of what they think that you should be, or what your potential is, and sign you from that sort of vision--like, ‘Oh, she’s great, and we’ll get rid of this and cut this and trim this. . . .’

“When a (lover) does that to you, it’s like, ‘Wait a minute, that’s me you’re talking about; I’m not gonna change for anything.’ People don’t realize that’s really a part of you, there’s something really going on there. . . . (The label representatives) didn’t really understand at first how far I wanted to go within myself doing the record.”

Eventually they too came around and, presumably, are glad they did. Childs held her ground, making an acclaimed debut album, “Union,” that has wonderfully spacious world-beat textures from Africa and elsewhere. That she brings a uniquely bluesy voice--a little reminiscent of Phoebe Snow’s, full of soul and rich, deep possibilities--to the tender genre of spiritually-tinged rock makes her abandonment of her former, more obvious funk-rock a minor loss.

If lovers can seem like record companies, Childs--who sings at the Roxy on Thursday and Friday and at the Coach House on Saturday--has other ways of mixing her personal and professional lives that make “Union” such an intriguing debut.

Her songwriting style is roughly akin to automatic writing: “I have this gift to just let words come out. And sometimes I don’t have a damn thing to do with it except that this is my body and it sounds like my voice. And David’s right there all the time when it’s happening.”

“David” is David Ricketts, half of the duo David + David, her constant collaborator, and her ex-boyfriend--which made it a little uncomfortable for Childs when she started expunging her feelings about the deterioration of their romance.

“You’re listening back to it on tape a few minutes later, after you’re out of your trance or whatever, and you’re going, ‘Damn, I don’t want this to happen now, I don’t want to look at this now, I want to run from this.’ ”

Ricketts didn’t run when Childs started letting loose about the relationship on tape right before his ears. “This man is in my life forever,” says Childs. “His family is my family now--that’s how close we are. You can really care about somebody, and it’s not working in a physicality way, and then you say, ‘OK, well, we’ve gotta let go of this.’ Then you find out where you really are with each other and how much you really, really just care about that person. It is rare.”