Breaking: Kate Walsh

Who: British singer-songwriter Kate Walsh, whose homemade album Tim's House rocketed to the top of the U.K. iTunes chart thanks to the success of her single "Talk of the Town." Now, she's conquering America the old fashioned way: by infiltrating the soundtrack of a Grey's Anatomy spin-off.

Sounds Like: The acoustic Tim's House finds Walsh strumming ideal-for-late-night-listening classics in the style of Joni Mitchell and the calmer side of Fleetwood Mac. The home-recorded, do-it-yourself feel of the album is being praised as quite charming.

Vital Stats:

• "Talk of the Town" was inspired by Walsh's youth, during which she was forced to change high schools four times because of small-town bullies that lambasted her for dreaming big and wanting to ditch her small fishing village. "I felt I'd never be satisfied there, and people misconstrued that as arrogance," Walsh says.

• Walsh started to make waves in America after "Your Song" appeared on the Grey's Anatomy spin-off show Private Practice. The star of that show? An actress named, fittingly enough, Kate Walsh. That's synergy.

• While the melancholic songs on Tim's House are very much indebted to Walsh's ex-boyfriend, her next album may sound decidedly different, as there's a new man in her life. "I'm really happy—and I'm not writing anything! My manager might start telling [my boyfriend] to be horrible to me so that I have some material," Walsh says.

Hear It Now: Tim's House hits U.S. shelves on January 29th, but in the meantime, listen to her songs on her MySpace page. Above, check out the video for "Your Song."

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

More Song Stories entries »

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