Pop/Rock/Blues - Brit singer and songwriter possesses a set of powerful, preternaturally soulful pipes - effortlessly lovely and equally haunting. Tirelessly hitting the U.K. jazz and blues club circuit for the past few years, Rowley has built up an avid following as well as a commanding live presence on stage. New U.K.-only EP "Violets" previews her eleven-track album due in March on Verve. "My main objective," she declares, "was to capture an old sound in a new, exciting way - and I think we"ve achieved that." For proof, check out her astounding vocals on the slow-burning blues standard "Nobody's Fault But Mine." (09/16 - Verve)

Listen to Beth Rowley tracks here. >>
Watch her perform 'Nobody's Fault' live here. >>

Pop/Rock - Canadian singer may be only 24, but her commanding voice and charismatic live performance is summed up succinctly by one critic as "Pipes. Presence. Potential." Armed usually with just an acoustic guitar, Ryder live is simply a force of nature, her tough/tender, quivering, bluesy/jazzy vocals often not needing amplification and her rhythmic hip-shaking playing seeming to lay claim to the stage forcefully and without doubt. After an indie release and an acclaimed album of covers released in Canada and Australia, Ryder is in the midst of recording her U.S. debut with a full band but, she promises, a "pretty stripped down" affair. "I'm really into doing a very direct, really organic sound." (TBD/2008 - Atlantic)

Listen to 'Hiding Place' here. >>

New Zealand based singer and songwriter Hollie Smith is blessed with one of "those" voices, one that simply has a naturally distinctive and earthy soulfulness, one that once you hear it you know you're hearing something special. Raised in a musical family, the 24-year-old has been singing as long as she can remember but it wasn't until last year when she began to turn heads. A song she sang called "Bathe In the Water" taken from a film soundtrack was one of the biggest hits down under where remained in the Top 10 for nearly 20 weeks.

Debut album "Long Player" debuted at #1 in New Zealand and quickly earned platinum status. For her U.S. debut set for early 2008, Smith recently traveled to Philadelphia and record two new songs with acclaimed producer James Poyser (The Roots, Common) to add to the song selection. A U.S. tour is planned around the release of the album. (2008 TBD - Blue Note)

Watch the video for 'I Will Do' >>

Pop/Folk - There's a rather hushed serenity to 18-year-old Laura Marling as well as a sense that she would prefer dark shadows to light, melancholy solitude to mindless chatter. Redemption, if achieved at all, would emerge quietly but none too easily from honest, emotional pain. Strikingly young in person with short blond locks framing a childlike face, Marling confounds with a commanding depth of simply profound lyrics and retro-meets-contemporary folk melodies from her exceptional debut album.

Drawing upon traditional Brit folk tenets of haunting story-telling and emotional bloodletting, Marling connects forcefully with subjects that aren't out of the realm of any number of thoughtful teens. But getting those images and observations into lyrics and then into provocative songs with imaginative production touches is a whole different thing. Revealed beneath the soft, sometimes wisp of plaintive vocal is a shy but confident and intense force of nature. "An enthralling listen" says the BBC. (08/19 - Caroline)

Rock/Pop - On first blush there's a ragged, boisterous, careening quality to the San Diego's much buzzed band Delta Spirit: an off-kilter rhythm here a strained vocal there. But just a few minutes into their infectiously engaging debut album "Ode to Sunshine" the rough-hewn rhythms and untidy vocals suddenly turn with a tight, well-tuned urgency, like an engine that simply needs to get out of first gear to really take off. Tracks such as "Children" and "Trashcan" have a sprawling, tumbling propulsion at their foundation and the sometimes bright cacophonous sound has a loosely joyous, well, spirit. "More Southern country than So-Cal" says CMJ of a band that has steadily built a reputation through a non-stop gritty, unglamorous and raucous live shows. Pounding piano chords, bluesy harmonica riffs, punching horn lines, organ fills and guitars that turn from twangy raunch to shimmer sometimes within a single song - all delivered with a slightly tipsy 2AM rootsy swagger. And at the center is vocalist Matt Vasquez, a singer who understands that sometimes sweat, urgency and impassioned sheer will usually take meaningless bluster or note-perfect precision every time. (08/26 - Rounder)

Pop/Folk/Rock - Brisk, brash and bracing, Glasgow busker-styled singer/songwriter Amy Macdonald has the tomboyish energy and melodic chops of fellow Scot KT Tunstall but seems to approach her songs with a more bender-fueled, 2AM intensity. Intense and assured, this 21-year-old has a jubilant and precocious swagger on tracks such as the revved strumming stomping beat on "Poison Prince" and "Mr. Rock and Roll." It's almost as if she and her band had to play just a tad louder to be heard of the din of the pub. But there are also some quieter, tempered tracks in the eye of the storm (ie.: the gorgeous, shimmering "Run" and "Footballer's Wife") that demonstrate there's some tenderness and thoughtfulness behind the brassy bluster.

Finally being released stateside in August by Decca nearly a year after it's U.K. release, the aptly titled "This Is the Life" reveals a three-pints to the wind attitude in addition to exposing the thoughts and reflections of the then-teenage writer who began writing and performing when she was only fifteen. The heart of "Life" beats fast, the pulse quickened with equal parts teen hormones, a stiff drink or two and some feminine, but un-ladylike grit and sweat. (08/19 - Decca)
Watch Amy MacDonald perform live here. >>

Pop/Rock/Alt - After a few years of making intriguing if often dissonant adventures into psychedelic folk, indie cult fave James Jackson Toth decided to delve into the "un-weird" with last year's "James and the Quiet" album from his recent moniker Wooden Wand. Now with what could technically be called his first "solo" album, the Tennessee-based singer and songwriter takes that more structured writing challenge to the next level with a mercurial and unpredictable album that veers between mesmerizing, 70's retro-rock and edgy modern musings. Produced by Pacific Northwest indie-rock figure Steve Fisk (Screaming Trees, Nirvana), "Waiting" masterfully hits all the right touchpoints of haunting, spacious country/blues rock of mid-career Stones and the bourbon-soaked troubador drawl of a dustbowl Tom Waits (but without the gruff rumble). His vocals often married in a lovely duet harmony with wife Jexie, Toth and his loose-limbed but nimble songs have a disarming, straightforward charm that goes down easier as the album moves, sometimes gliding, sometimes in fits and starts, through its twelve engaging, often dreamy songs. (7/29 - Rykodisc)

Listen to 'Nothing Hides' here. >>

Pop - Having sold millions of albums in her native Australia and around the world, 23-year-old singer with eight #1 hits down under (and one of the biggest selling debut albums ever) will at long last see her lush, mainstream pop arriving stateside. For the upcoming launch of the dramatic, upbeat and revealing new album the focus is less on her often glamorous image and decidedly more on her own piano skills and substantial personal songwriting abilities. From radio-friendly dance/pop to sumptuous, passionate ballads, "Delta" is imbued with an assertive and commanding force that comes from a talent that has honed her performing skills at an early age. In a life filled with massive success and dramatic setbacks, including a debilitating and ultimately successful battle with cancer, Goodrem is proof that there can be a triumph of spirit and sheer will - and enormous talent to boot. "I like the idea of starting in America with a clean slate, she says, "I'm looking forward to singing my heart out." (07/15 - Decca)

Listen to tracks from 'Delta' here. >>

Pop - Alaskan singer/songwriter received acclaim for her 2005 debut album "Fate Is the Hunter" with an affinity for personal, sharply observant and finely crafted songs. Drawing comparisons to Fiona Apple and Rickie Lee Jones, Earl's dark and deeply dreamy songs display an innate soulfulness that should be on display for her slightly more R+B-influenced sophomore effort, due later this year on Universal.

"The sound I have dreamed of for years and years is finally coming to life," Earl observes. "The first time around I came to my producer with the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill record. But it wasn't the time. So for the past two years I have gone back to the sound in my mind, coaxing it out... Learning how to write it and communicate to everyone around me what I hear. I have chased so many different producers, song writers, beatmakers, players to help me fulfill this vision. I have taken meetings, crashed parties, myspaced and even quit music for a minute to end up finding friends and family to pull me back in the game."

"Now I am letting my guard down and being myself," she says. "All of myself. The folk, jazz, blues, gospel, soul, rock & roll AND hip hop... and the rest." As she sums it up: "It's a new day." (TBD - Universal Republic)

Listen to track from her new album here. >>