This young woman is big news in Australia. Her name? Missy Higgins.

Unlike the other famous Missy, this one isn’t known for her dirty rapping style, or anything like that.

This Antipodean is gaining a reputation for herself as an amazing singer/songwriter, and has already released two albums, The Sound Of White back in 2004 and this year’s On A Clear Night. And she’s only a tender 24 years old.

She’s won stacks of ARIA awards (that’s the Australian recording industry, fact fans), and her music has been featured on loads of American dramas, like Smallville, Grey’s Anatomy and One Tree Hill.

“That’s fantastic,” you’re all saying, “but what does she sound like?”

Well, best to throw a few comparisons in the air - a slightly sultrier version of Dido, a little Jewel, and many of those other femmes of the acoustic scene. Here’s a few links for places you can find Missy on the web, and we’ve thrown in a video of her best-known song, Where I Stood.

• Listen to Missy on MySpace
• Official Website

Fresh from chart success in her native America, Sara Bareilles is launching an assault on the British charts with a love song called Love Song…

Anyway, wasn’t it The Beautiful South who started this trend of writing songs about writing songs? Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue…

It goes without saying that I’d rather look at Bareilles than Paul Heaton any day of the week. But about that song…

Love Song was apparently written in response to Sara’s record company requesting that she record a commercially viable love song. Get it? It’s not a love song at all, it’s actually a witty rebuke to her record company.

This is my first encounter with Sara Bareilles, and I have to say, I love the voice. It’s a little more forceful than many of her contemporaries could muster, and soulful too. The song itself is poppy: accessible yet different from the other music pervading the charts at the moment.

My only concern would be how far a piano-star can go in the music business. Remember when Vanessa Carlton launched with A Thousand Miles some years ago and has steadily (and sadly) faded into obscurity since? As I always say, we’ll know from the strength of the follow-up how far Bareilles is likely to go, but this song is a winner.

Let’s face it, Jack Johnson hasn’t made a name for himself as a musical trailblazer. His forte seems to be in melodic, laid back acoustic tunes for folks to chillax to. Yes, I said ‘chillax’.

And unlike the evil-voiced castrato that is James Blunt, Johnson has a voice that’s pleasant to listen to. I don’t think the lyrical content matters much with this type of music - it’s just a nice lilting vibe that you could imagine unwinding to at the end of a tough day.

I’ll leave you to watch a video of Hope…enjoy…

Hope is released on 14th April 2008 and is the second single from Jack Johnson’s Sleep Through The Static album.

Amy MacDonald has had a fantastic run with her debut album This Is The Life. Would you believe that Run is actually the fifth single to be released from it?

It doesn’t take long to work out that Amy’s Scottish - those booming Celtic vocals are a dead giveaway every time.

Run doesn’t break any new ground in acoustic singer/songwriter territory. But what it lacks in originality, it makes up for in a fantastic sonic experience. The song builds from a slow, gloomy start to a majestic chorus led by MacDonald’s powerful lungs. Her singing lungs you filthy beasts;)

The video features young Amy wandering through a forest at night. Now, hanging around secluded areas at night can damage a young lady’s reputation. My opinion? She’s practising the witchcraft. Obviously.

Overall though, Run probably finishes MacDonald’s singles from her debut album. It’s a decent track, but leaves me craving for something more creative from her.

Run was released on 3 March 2008. Visit Amy’s official website and MySpace page.

Poor old Jamie, he took a battering from musicOMH in their review of Standing In The Rain. To add insult to injury, they likened the poor guy to my all-time most loathed artist - James Blunt.

Nobody is that bad. And we loved their impromptu cover of Bleeding Love back in November.

Anyway, here’s what musicOMH said:

…you know exactly what he’s like before you even take the CD from the case. The young photogenic singer/songwriter wandering through a field of corn on the cover, the tasteful font, even a title like Standing In The Rain screams: “I am the new James Morrison/James Blunt/Paolo Nutini - buy my record!”

I’m as tired of the sensitive singer/songwriter genre as anyone else, but they’re not being fair - Standing In The Rain is a decent ballad that showcases the quality of songwriting that Scott and The Town are capable of. He’s got a rich soulful voice which isn’t nearly as grating as Blunt or that honking arch-demon, Daniel Powter.

In fact, Jamie Scott proves that the singer/songwriter genre is not whipped, and that it’s possible to produce acoustic material that’s a pleasure to listen to. Gonna give this one a thumbs up.

Acoustic maestro Newton Faulkner is releasing a cover of Massive Attack’s classic single Teardrop.

First reaction: how is a dreadlocked singer/songwriter type going to pull off this song without becoming a public enemy?

Answer: Faulkner does an awesome job.

Back when I reviewed Dream Catch Me, I remember being underwhelmed by the song and all the hype surrounding Newton Faulkner. However, with Teardrop, I can see what all the buzz is about.

He handles the singing with a throaty, almost grungey vocal that satisfies, and manages to replicate the beat from the original simply by using his guitar for percussion. Yet, it climbs to a totally different level when the drums come crashing in and Faulkner lets out an amazing wail…

The video is psychedelic to say the least, shifting angles so many times, it’d make MC Escher dizzy. Check it out…

Discovered via Jenny May’s excellent Band Weblogs. Teardrop can be found on Faulkner’s new album Hand Built By Robots.

Meet Susy Thomas. She’s an indie-label artist from London with a cute smile and a maker of cracking acoustic pop tunes.

Susy was suggested for our Recommended By You spot by Vince Freeman (who we wrote about previously).

Vince describes Susy as a fantastic performer, “Her voice has a real soulful twist with a real international flavour.  Its lovely to see female performers with a real command over the instruments they play.”

I listened to a few of Susy’s songs on her MySpace page and they’re excellent, great songwriting, a beautiful, slightly smoky voice and high quality production.

Susy has been all over the world in her musical career and has worked with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, Michael Kamen and Lestyn Polson. She has spent time in the USA writing and recording.

Check out Susy’s main website for more details, including a biography and an online store where you can buy her tracks if you like them.

When last we saw James Blunt, he was diving stark naked into what looked like a freezing cold ocean. He’d just dropped You’re Beautiful on an unsuspecting world and, sensing that there’d be an all-male lynch mob out to get him for releasing such muck, he’s laid low for a respectable amount of time.

Which brings us to his latest single, 1973.

Ask anyone, and they’ll grudgingly agree that this is Blunt’s best track to date. It’s certainly a welcome break from those painfully contrived ballads he was pumping out a few years ago.

1973 is a fine example of a mellow, modern love song. Co-written with Mark Batson, it’s got immediate appeal and doesn’t make you want to kill Blunt after a few listens. That’s got to be good, right?

Seriously though, there’s something beautiful about having a memory of someone rooted in a single moment: that lyric “and though time goes by I will always be/in a club with you in 1973..” is probably the best bit of the whole song.

The video’s pretty neat too, employing that age-old technique of alternating between the present and…er….1973. And who the hell’s Simona?

So, startlingly, Blunt’s latest single gets a thumbs up…

1973 is the first single from James Blunt’s new album All The Lost Souls.

Some of the covers have been fantastic, while others have been drill-your-eardrums-out abysmal. Lily’s version of Don’t Get Me Wrong is faultless however: chiming, upbeat and with her own distinct character on it.

Check out the track below:

London Still was a single from their 2003 album Up All Night, which remains to this day an unsung classic acoustic folk/blues/country album.

A lot of the songs on the Up All Night album dealt with issues of distance and homesickness, and London Still seemed to be their definitive homesick tune. The lyric “today I dream of home and not of London anymore” says it all.

Sung by Donna Simpson, the tune has a feeling of lazily living out life in the city but increasingly yearning for home. It describes tube trips over to Camden to wander around and buy records and in that way captures the romance of living in a foreign city.

The guitar work (which I’ll attribute to Josh Cunningham) is flawless and melodic, with cascading acoustic runs and resonating chords punctuating the story. Definitely a classic tune, from a band who are well worth a listen.

I’m a big fan of the Up All Night album, so I suggest you start there if you want to get to know The Waifs better. They’ve also got a new album out called ’sundirtwater’, which I can’t wait to hear.