Rachael Yamagata

Rachael Yamagata is a singer-songwriter whose versatility makes her music hard to pigeonhole. Sometimes, she gets into the pop/rock territory with an off kilter, Fiona Apple type flair or PJ Harvey type power. Then she plays blues with a swagger, or turns to subtle piano ballads that emotionally linger. Other times, and more frequently as of late, she is a crooner who projects a jazzy kind of cool in the Roberta Flack lane. Whichever direction she takes though, she comes to it with the songwriting skills that make it work. She sings in a mature, smoky voice that can navigate the stylistic variety. There is a bit of weight of the world feel to her songs and her delivery has a "grown up" quality that brings to mind artists like Tom Waits, Joe Henry, or Carole King, not necessarily in terms of style, but in her tone.