Thank you for reminding me...

This is for whoever ended up here when wondering who wrote/performed the song 'Driving To Idaho' earlier this evening...

This is the 2005 (self -released) Idaho Records version of her second album 'Fires' (the first album was 'Dear Frustrated Superstar', which is also well worth a listen) and it can still be found cheaply on Amazon Marketplace. It is, in my opinion far more real - and thus worth seeking - than the later major label (14th Floor) 'sparkly-pop' re-release of it. Another album, 'The Graduate' followed in 2009 and, in between times, she has been busy writing for other artists.  
I believe that she has been writing for herself again recently and that Bernard Butler might be on production duties for the new collection. 
For those of us with a fascination with lyrics she is somewhere between dream and nightmare - track 7 on 'Fires' is Geek Love and is about as improbable as could be.

Driving to Idaho. What happened to Nerina Pallot?

Driving to Idaho...
The track that arguably took her from Dear Frustrated Superstar territory, after endless battles with the suits at the label that released her first album, had that title. Her second album was to be Fires and it was originally released in 2005 by the label 'Idaho' that she set up for that purpose.

Fires (2005) - IDAHOCD001

In 2006 she was signed to 14th Floor Records, a Universal imprint. Fires was then remixed (more sparkly, as the artist herself put it) and given a major re-release. It was good too, and it went platinum in the UK. Call me reactionary if you like but I actually still prefer the original Idaho version for its less intrusive production and have them both. For months in 2006 the songs from this album could be heard almost whenever the radio was on. The singles from it were largely well received and successful given the full treatment and promotion.

14th Floor 825646387076 14FLR16V LC003077 (2006)

They were good songs, well written, arranged and sung and then, as suddenly as she had appeared, she vanished.
Probably not for much longer though - she's now got to choose the tracks that will constitute her third album. That might take some time as, a prolific songwriter and lyricist, choosing at most a dozen from apparently about sixty songs is always going to be a challenge. It will, when it appears, be one that I'll be quite happy to buy even if I have not yet heard a single track from it.