Like Blood Like Honey
A lot of roads lead to Holly Brook (the singer, not a picnic destination). There's the hip-hop path, on which plenty of next-big-thing predictors got to know her through her collaboration with Fort Minor onThe Rising Tide(her haunting chorus on "Where'd You Go" became an instant hit). Then there's the TV path, on which anybody with an ear for pop with staying power could have chosen between a couple of trails: both the NBC showConvictionand the WB seriesRelatedhave featured her plaintive song "What I Wouldn't Give" off this, her debut. However you reach this piano-propelled 20-year-old star in the making, though, you won't be sorry. In the space of three songs, she recalls a decade's worth of singer-songwriters twice her age, and in an unhurried, stylish way that suggests she's doing it handily. A wrenching Tori Amos vibe weaves through "Again & Again," a track that recalls Shawn Colvin in equal measure; Suzanne Vega circaSolitude Standingsurfaces in the vivid short verses of "Saturday"; and Sarah McLachlan seeps out over most of the vocals, but especially those on "Give It Up for You" and the lovely "Cellar Door." Joni Mitchell is the association Brook was going for--she cites her as influence number one--but comparisons with the more obvious mentors can't come as much of a bummer. The Joni connection may surface yet:Like Blood Like Honeyis surely a trickle in a long career to come.--Tammy La Gorce