Jesca Hoop

Jesca Hoop's strikingly delicate, slanted take on music floated into the public consciousness after Tom Waits got his hands on her demo and rather excitedly sent it to his producer. Another copy found its way into Nic Harcourt's hands and when he played her song "Seed of Wonder," the KCRW phone lines lit up with listeners demanding to know who she was. (Hoop was living in a van in Sonoma County at the time.) "Wonder" went on to become the top requested song for eight weeks and pretty soon Hoop was in discussions to make future recordings. Heady stuff for a singer who has yet to release a full-length, but the adulation is warranted. Hoop's supple, jazzy voice and completely unorthodox approach to songwriting turns each song into its own self-contained little world, encased in a bubble inhabited with people who are strange, wonderful and carnival-esque.