Album: Lhasa, Lhasa, (Warner Music)

She's American-Mexican but lives in Montreal. She was responsible for the very lovely folk-latin The Living Road in 2003. She sings in a slightly fragile, flexuous contralto voice. She's all tone.

This is her first all-English record and it is charming in many ways. Its themes are the existential ones of Being and the World: it's full of dreams and death and "drowned towns". The posture is essentially arty, hence her supporting ensemble: drums, bass, guitar and harp. Nicely done.

Pick of the album: 'Love Came Here': Tom Waits came here too