It’s been a long time since Diedra Ruff has visited Washington — longer still since she lifted her voice in song every Sunday at Davenport Temple in Washington. But ‘Little DeeDee Tucker’ returns home this weekend, and she’s bringing the band with her.

Diedra Ruff will perform Sunday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Backwater Jack’s Tiki Bar and Grill in Washington.

Her voice and style are described as a mix between Anita Baker, Patti LaBelle and Aretha Franklin — a combination that adds up to “authentic Alabama blues, spiced with southern soul,” according to indie label Blurox Records’ website. Her band is a family affair: Ruff’s husband, Keithen Ruff, is the lead guitarist; his nephew, Ezra Williams, is the drummer. Even bass player Ralph Lee has a tenuous family connection, as the boyfriend of a Ruff cousin.

“We really are kind of tied in as fully family now,” Ruff said.

Music has always been about family for Ruff: her father, a pastor at Davenport Temple, wrote songs and put together a family group consisting of Ruff, her sister, brother and three cousins to sing those songs in church.

“The whole family did something musical. …  I loved it. He thought he had a little Jackson (5) thing going,” Ruff laughed.

While the family left North Carolina in the 1980s, Ruff still refers to Washington as home, not only because she still has a lot of family in the area, but because her childhood years were spent at Eastern Elementary, John Cotten Tayloe, John Small School and P.S. Jones. She has fond memories of friends she made during the years that also heralded her start in music. Ruff’s lifelong passion has its roots in faith, as well as the many genres she heard on eastern North Carolina radio.

After a few years struggling to make something of an R&B contract with a New York production company, she teamed up with her husband and was reintroduced to the blues.

“You know, it’s funny, you hear music all the time growing up … my mom was playing all that stuff growing up — country, et cetera — you just knew all that stuff all together and didn’t really have genres,” Ruff said. “The blues is fun. That was the thing I learned: it was fun. It’s a genre of music where you don’t have to look a certain way. Blues — they don’t care.”

The Ruffs play off one another: Keithen Ruff writes the music; she writes the lyrics. But the one time a melody woke her in the middle of the night, the result was “Hip Swingin’ Blues,” which topped beach music charts, won her the first of several blues awards and inspired a nationally-known line dance.

“I know that in my dreams God was giving me this hit and I had no idea, I just heard the melody and how it should go,” Ruff said.

Ruff and the band make their home in Birmingham, but a family event in eastern North Carolina had her searching out venues to play in the area. She said she’s looking forward to performing at Backwater Jack’s, known for its live music on the weekends.

“To be able to come home, that’s just something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time,” Ruff said. “They call me the Alabama blues queen, but your heart is always home.”