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.

New Music 2009 - Major labels and foreign language music.

Don't say that I didn't warn you because I did so yesterday. Why am I suddenly being positive about some major label releases? That is easy to answer and, really quite selfishly, because they are releasing music that I want to listen to and I have no problem with that whether it is self-released or done under the auspices of a major label.

I have no problem with foreign-language music either and have posted about this before. I've got most of the released recorded output of both and so, on that basis, I don't reckon I'm taking much of a risk here!

Strange to relate that Shakira is here, but with the album that is mostly in English although her native language is Spanish (and three albums with major releases in that language alone), but the all-Spanish album is this...

She is Canadian, of Portuguese origin, but has chosen to release her fourth album entirely in Spanish and the reviews that I have read, of both these albums, are glowing. If you have a open mind about new music, and given the kind of music I like, you can probably see why they are both on my wish list.

Not that I have any details, yet alone album art, but another to watch out for, and another Canadian singer/songwriter on a mission to surprise, is the album 'Joy' by Fefe Dobson (21 Records) and failing that try this instead.

For the background to this, her third album, which I said I would buy even if I had heard nothing from it, see this link:
http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2009/02/driving-to-idaho-what-happened-to.html