(Lauren Pritchard - London by way of New York, by way of L.A. by way of Memphis)

I was thinking I hadn't really played anything from the singer-songwriter sector of the Music community of late. Truths to tell, I've been more or less preoccupied listening to band demos and MySpace pages I haven't really had any time to check out the solo artists of late.

But I'm trying to catch up. And I think one of the nice discoveries of this week comes in the form of Lauren Pritchard, originally from Tennessee who landed for a while in Los Angeles and then packed and wound up in New York before moving on to London, where she's now gigging around and recording stuff like this track, When The Night Kills The Day. She looks nothing like her voice; deep low and soulful in direct contrast to the sun-washed open-eyed photos on her MySpace page. I was pretty surprised how much her voice reminded me of Carole King (from many-many years ago and another singer-songwriter), and maybe it was that little blast of retro that caught my ear.

But I heard this track a few times and I like more with each hearing and that's usually a positive sign.

Aside from her landings, I really don't know that much about her, other than she's playing in Bristol at The Louisiana in April and if you're in town you might want to fall by and check her out. All I know is, she's good and her material is well produced and her songs are nice.

A good start to the week, yes?