Serena Ryder is just 23. But her voice, a deep, bluesy, soulful instrument that has drawn comparisons to Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin, makes her sound much older. She also appears wise beyond her years, blessed with an intelligence and confidence that came across in her songs on Unlikely Emergency, her critically acclaimed independent album. Some might even call her an “old soul” who seems like she’s been here before.

Ryder’s extraordinary major-label debut, If Your Memory Serves You Well, involves no time-traveling or reincarnation. But it does feature the native of Millbrook, Ontario covering vintage Canadian songs—some of them written more than 70 years before she was born—with remarkable authority. From Shelton Brooks’ “Some of These Days,” recorded by the likes of Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday,” to Percy Faiths’ “My Heart Cries for You,” previously recorded by Ray Charles and Ben E. King, Ryder sings with enough passion and conviction to make them her own. She delivers a stunning rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Sisters of Mercy” and a scorching version of “This Wheel’s on Fire,” which Bob Dylan co-wrote with The Band’s Rick Danko.

If Your Memory Serves You Well is as much a testament to Ryder’s talent as it is a tribute to the enduring strength of these songs. She takes “Boo Hoo,” a playful 1937 number co-written by Guy Lombardo’s brother Carmen, and turns it into a funky romp that is both campy and highly contemporary. And she makes “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream,” Ed McCurdy’s 1949 anti-war anthem sound as relevant and emotionally vital as the day it was written. One of the album’s most buoyant numbers is “Good Morning Starshine,” Galt MacDermott’s joyous anthem from the 1967 hippie musical Hair, co-written with the show’s creators, which Ryder captures in all its feel-good glory. “It’s amazing how much this material makes more sense the older it gets,” says Ryder. “A lot of the songs speak to the political time in which they were written, but they also resonate with what’s going on today. That’s the mark of a great song.”

Ryder had no reservations about tackling material by other artists, even though she’s a songwriter herself. For her, it’s “all about beginnings.” She points out that “Morning Dew,” the apocalyptic vision made famous by Rod Stewart and The Grateful Dead, was the first song ever written by a young Toronto folksinger named Bonnie Dobson. Similarly, “You Were On My Mind” marked Sylvia Tyson’s debut as a songwriter. “A lot of performers wait until later in their careers to pay homage to other composers,” says Ryder. “Why should you have to wait? Why not start with songs that have stood the test of time and are so awe-inspiring? I’m at the beginning of my career and I want to learn from the best of them.”