Just another false alarm...

I'll take an early chance to recommend the relatively new, and damn fine, singer Carina Round, who has a single out on Monday, called 'Lacuna', which I recommend highly to all. I'm highly biassed in the matter, of course, since I'll admit that I began her first ever fan site (now largely defunct, due to an attempt at a more professional design which, once abandoned, succeeded only in removing most of the content that had been on there previously) and, as a result she has bought me drinks and given me free gig tickets, the sort of thing which easily wins my affection (her looks don't hurt either).

Her reputation is spreading extremely quickly now, thanks in large part to her live shows, which are quite honestly some of the best I've ever seen. Her voice is powerful beyond words, and unlike most singer-songwriters she's very much into using the full potential of her band, also highly talented. She's supported the likes of Ryan Adams, Miles Hunt, James Brown (bizarrely), Ben & Jason etc., which has so far placed her directly in the obscure indie fan category of music. But she's much more interesting than that and will hopefully soon gain a much wider audience. Her musical influences - which include Patti Smith, Tom Waits, Led Zeppelin, The Pixies and Nina Simone - often come through in her music, which ranges from the rawest rock to laid-back bluesy numbers, these days with some wonderful slide guitar effects added on many songs, thanks to guitarist Tom Livemore. Lyrically, she's completely out of the league of the navel-gazers and getting more mature as her records go on (though no less angry).

She's had two albums: 'The First Blood Mystery' came out in 2001 and is now extremely hard to find but well worth it, and her follow-up, 'The Disconnection', came out last year and can be found in HMV and Virgin. Otherwise, buy the single this Monday, and boast to your friends in a couple of years' time that you found her first...