There is very good reason why singer Melba Moore's new CD is titled I'm Still Here.

For starters, the name derives from the title track on the singer's first-ever gospel recording. It is also the first album in a decade for the Grammy-nominated artist.

But beyond that, I'm Still Here speaks to the struggles that the petite woman with the powerhouse voice has endured both professionally and personally.

Hers is a true-life survivor's tale that began with fame and fortune on Broadway and hit records in the late '60s and '70s. From there, she co-founded an entertainment-management firm with her former husband / manager, but by the early 1990s, it was falling apart.

Moore says she was once worth millions. But a messy public divorce found her near penniless, on welfare and fighting for custody of her daughter. The myriad challenges led her on a spiritual path that ended with a commitment as a born-again Christian. Today, she speaks of a newfound sense of direction and peace.

"It's a new day," Moore says during a phone interview from her apartment in New Jersey, overlooking the Hudson River. "There are some wonderful things that I know God has given us," she says. "I know that he allows us to start over. He doesn't pigeonhole us."

Moore certainly hasn't been pigeonholed during her career -- one that's spanned more than three decades, earning her a Tony Award, Grammy nominations and other prestigious honors.

Born to musician parents in New York City, she moved with her family to Newark, N.J., where she studied voice and piano at a performing arts high school and later earned a degree in musical education from Montclair State Teachers College. She taught school for a while, but the yearn to perform kept nagging at her.

She began performing, and got her big break in the musical Hair, the popular but controversial show about hippie culture and social consciousness that opened on Broadway in 1968. "It was a fabulous and exciting time, like a dream," says Moore, who spent 18 months with the show, at one point replacing Diane Keaton in the lead role.

That success was quickly followed by another when Moore became a sensation in another Broadway hit musical, Purlie. Her portrayal of Lutiebell Gussiemae Jenkins, an innocent Southern domestic who falls for a fast-talking preacher, earned Moore a Tony Award for best supporting actress in a musical.

Around the same time, Moore had her own personal drama going on. She had fallen in love with actor Clifton Davis, who was starring in another Broadway show across the street. "It was a turbulent love affair," Moore says when asked about Davis, with whom she later partnered for a '70s television program, The Melba Moore / Clifton Davis Show.

She confirmed longtime rumors that Davis spent her money, and that together they experimented with drugs. "There was a time in my life when I was very vulnerable," she reflects.

Still, back then, the personal travails did not hamper her recording career. After wowing crowds on the Great White Way, Moore won more fame and fans with pop and R&B; hits such as, "This Is It," "You Stepped Into My Life" and her Grammy-nominated signature song, "Lean On Me."

These days, when Moore sings "Lean On Me," she often changes the words to "Lean on Jesus."

She plans to sing the song while performing tomorrow night at Mount Pleasant Church and Ministries in northeast Baltimore. The event will be held in the church sanctuary, which holds about 3,500 people.

"I like Baltimore, and this is my second time performing at the church," says Moore.

She thinks the church audience will particularly appreciate songs from I'm Still Here, which is slated to hit stores in August.

"I've always had a very strong desire to worship God in song. Over the years, I've done it by visiting churches and ministering in song," she notes. "Through my travels, I've met songwriters and producers ... out of which did come my first gospel album."

Although in recent years, Moore has seemed less visible, she has been busy with a variety of projects. Her 1990 recording of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" was instrumental in having the song entered into the Congressional Record as the official African American National Anthem. In 1996, she took over the role of Fantine in the Broadway musical Les Miserables.

She has also appeared in a number of gospel plays, and has been playing to standing-room-only audiences around the country for the past four years in Sweet Songs of the Soul, a one-woman musical play she hopes to take to Broadway.

Moore has formed the Melba Moore Foundation for Abused & Neglected Children. It stems in part, she says, from the trauma her daughter experienced when she and her husband split. Today, she proudly notes that her now 25-year-old daughter recently received a degree and is headed to law school. Perhaps as proof of both her spiritual and financial recovery, Moore gave her daughter a car.

"I handle all my own money now," she says chuckling.

She turns serious describing her reinvigorated career and life: "Some people are depressed all their life and don't even know it. I was one of them. When I woke up and saw that I could be happy, it was a good day. I am truly blessed."

In concert

Who: Melba Moore

Where: Mount Pleasant Church and Ministries, 6000 Radecke Ave.

When: Tomorrow, 7 p.m.

Admission: By donation

Call: 410-325-3080