My first impression was wow!
Katie Melua 2005
I first heard Katie Melua late into the 2005 summer holidays, during our traditional evening barbeque. Outside on a warm evening, fire glowing away, our transistor radio tuned into BBC Radio Wiltshire. We would always start with chicken and salad, and during the feast, mellow music would be playing in the background.

Something caught my inner eardrums, a delightful female singer, with an angelic and powerful voice. Just as I was cooking the second course of spicy sausages, I was repeatedly singing under my breath the delightful melody of Katie Melua, whilst sipping a can of beer.

I inquired into who she was. I thought she was someone obscure and was surprised to learn she was No 1 in the album charts. Even on a ghetto blaster she sounded very good.

But nothing prepared me for what I heard when I bought a copy of her debut album Call Off The Search and listened to it properly on decent equipment. The recording, performance and production was brilliant. Hence the mind blowing wow!

Katie looks about 16, possibly as young as 12. A little waif dwarfed by her acoustic guitar. On one of the tracks 'The Closest Thing To Crazy', she gives the impression she is about 22 - 'feeling 22, acting 17'.

Only later was I to learn she is only 19. But for someone so young, an amazingly powerful voice. Born in Georgia in the former USSR (1984), Katie lived in Moscow for a while when she was three or four.

The family then moved to Northern Ireland when she was nine when her father got a job there as a heart surgeon. Later the family moved again, this time to south east London.

Katie grew up close to the Falls Road in Belfast. She went to a Catholic School, her younger brother to a Protestant School. The song 'Belfast (Penguins and Cats)' is about Protestants (penguins) and Catholics (cats).

Katie compares herself with Eva Cassidy, and dedicates one of her tracks to Eva Cassidy, but good as Eva Cassidy is, and much as I love Eva, she blows Eva away. If I was to make a comparison, I would compare her with Rickie Lee Jones. In addition to Eva Cassidy, Katie cites another major influence to be Ella Fitzgerald. Other influences include Queen, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Irish folk music and Indian music.

Some will compare Katie with Norah Jones. The comparison is very superficial. The mood is different and you need to be in a different mood to listen to Norah Jones, who, if the mood is not right, sounds very bland in comparison (Katie is more upbeat). If anything, Norah Jones is even more like Rickie Lee Jones than is Katie Melua.

A heady mix of blues and jazz, or maybe a whimsical mix of jazz and blues, as to the purist it's neither.

With all the rubbish that gets into the album charts, it is a refreshing change that the charts are topped by someone who makes it on talent alone. Katie's first album went six times platinum in the UK and made her the biggest selling female solo artist in the UK in 2004 (despite the fact that 300K of her sales were in 2003 so didn't count!).

In between her overseas travel Katie has recorded her new album, ‘Piece By Piece’, which had it's UK release on September 26th 2005. The Single, ‘Nine Million Bicycles’, released on September 19th was be premiered on Terry Wogan’s Radio Two breakfast show on August 1st has been voted as a serious contender for record of the year.