Introducing a slice of soul from Down Under

Before I get into who this soul sister pictured above is, let me briefly introduce myself. Whilst living in Mexico at the beginning of 2008, I was scouring the net for info on SXSW parties to attend and stumbled across The Couch Sessions and LOVED the site. Stone and I then began exchanging party info for SXSW via Twitter,I then met both Stone and Marcus at SXSW and we kicked it at several showcases. Of anyone I had ever met while living up in the Northern Hemisphere, these two were the only people I met who knew of and were fans of New Zealand artists, its safe to say I was impressed. Almost a year on and a few attempts to get me contributing to the site, I finally gave in, seeing it as an opportunity to showcase some amazingly dope music from my part of the world that generally gets slept on overseas.

So what better way to kick it off then posting on one of my favourite New Zealand artists, the beautiful Hollie Smith.

Hollie Smith has one of those voices that 20 years from now, you could hear her on a track and just know its her, it's that powerful and that distinctive.  After releasing an EP in 2003 and working with prominent NZ artists such as Fat Freddys Drop and Solaa, she burst onto the scene in 2007 with her brilliant and highly acclaimed debut album Long Player, which went on to go double platinum in NZ, no easy feat I must say. A few years later and with the unfortunate folding of her deal with the legendary Blue Note label behind her, she is back with a vengeance awaiting the release of her sophomore album titled Humour and the Misfortune of Others which is to be released on March 15. The lead single is titled Mamma, which is now accompanied by this recently released dope music video. If this single is any indication of what we are to expect from the album, all others step aside, because 2010 may just become the property of Miss Hollie Smith.