Come lie with me and be my support

This space doesn't usually cover support acts. But this act won't be a support for long. Her name is Holly Palmer, and her forthcoming single deserves to be the song we remember this summer by. Entitled "Come Lie with Me", it's a beguiling jazz-pop tune with a chorus that slips down like iced coffee.

The debut album Holly Palmer, which was released last autumn, contains four or five tracks in the same class, and has drawn comparisons with Rickie Lee Jones and Alanis Morissette. The first is spot on, though Palmer (above) would not claim to sing like Rickie Lee. The other is way off - Palmer's sound has nothing to do with fury.

Instead it draws on her eclectic tastes (Radiohead, Dana Bryant, Al Green), a love of beat poetry ("Come Lie with Me" is a phrase of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's) and a picaresque past. Born in California, brought up outside Seattle, she did a music degree in Boston and wrote several songs in Kent, while "living in the the attic and playing with the kids" at co-writer Pete Glenister's family home. Now 27, Palmer lives in New York with her husband, who does a proper job. On stage, she has a fine band and a discreet charm. Holly goes lightly. (Holly Palmer supports Shawn Colvin at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, W12, 0181 740 7474, Fri; Glasgow Arches, 0141 764 0764, 30 Jun. "Come Lie with Me" is released by Reprise on 14 Jul.) Tim de Lisle