This week Roots music releases reviewed

MELODY GARDOT

My One and Only Thrill Verve ****

Melody Gardot is remarkable in three ways. First, she has a gorgeous after-midnight voice that doesn’t so much sing a song as caress it and tease it. Second, she writes her own songs, numbers that often seem like seasoned standards but aren’t. And third? Well, third is the fact that Gardot wouldn’t be near the spotlight were it not for a quirk of fate that left her injured at 19 when she was knocked down riding her bicycle. Her doctor encouraged the Philadelphian to use music therapy, and she literally found her voice. The legacy of her injuries are a cane and dark glasses, but on Gardot’s second album her voice seems more assured and her songwriting more focused. It’s light jazzy with a hint of Dusty Springfield and the spirit of Ella Fitzgerald, or sophisticated pop with an Annie Lennox twist. Perhaps the listener might need a little time to get beyond the sheen of the strings, but Gardot is worth it. www.melody gardot.com

Download tracks: Baby I'm a Fool, If the Stars Were Mine, Lover Undercover

LIZ DURRETT

Outside Our Gates Touch & Go ***

Athens, Georgia, has produced a couple of notables in out time, and Liz Durrett already has a bit of genetic leg-up – her uncle and former producer is famed folkie outsider Vic Chestnut, who helps out on a couple of tracks on this, her third album. Durrett has a weird take on the world – dark, gothic and occasionally deliciously quirky. It helps that she has a compelling, soft sandpaper voice that is both warm and distant, often at the same time. In addition, producer Eric Bachmann of oddball Denver outfit Crooked Fingers cossets her intense musings in ever-building fragmented layers of sound. Durrett is expected at the Kilkenny Roots Festival in May, and methinks she could be a very dark horse indeed. www.lizdurrett. com

Download tracks: You Live Alone, Wake to Believe