As reasons go for taking up singing, a cure for carsickness stands out. Thus was the beginning of young Amy Smith's musical career, encouraged to sing on family outings so as to avoid redecorating the inside of the car. Amy's first piano lessons also came into being as a diversion, this time to stop the 'terrible twos'. Fingers on a piano keyboard weren't in the kitchen cupboards/video player/biscuit tin etc (her parents were onto something!). Slowly a diversion turned into fascination and Amy became the latest musical addition to the family, singing along with her parents and older sister, avidly memorising any new melody taught to her by her dad. With such an inspirational home environment, it is no surprise that Amy started to write songs at an early age, but rather than tales from a teenage heart, Amy's catalogue opened with a song whose inspiration came from a teenage mind: 'If I Were An Ant On The Ceiling' Amy continued to write and sing, so, as an adopted scouser (the family moved from Warwickshire to Liverpool in 1987), it seemed natural to enrol at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (L.I.P.A.). Now 24 and recently graduated, Amy adored her time there and cites incredibly inspirational teachers and great musicians as co-students, two of whom are currently in her band; all of whom have helped in the making of the Amy Smith of today. The other great influences on her musical life are Bob Dylan ("The more I listen to his songs, the more his phrasing and lyrics change the way I myself write"), Sandy Denny and Nick Drake, who was "unique, beautiful, and magical. You cannot fail to be melodically inspired by his work." Amy's own songs are often underpinned by a folky sensibility inherited from these late sixties and early seventies' minstrels, and yet they have a Carole King-esque with a chorus and melody which makes them as unforgettable as her hauntingly beautiful voice. Amy Smith and her songs come to the fore at a time where 'real' music is making a comeback. Perhaps disillusioned with (and unsatisfied by) the manufactured pop that floods our airwaves, record buyers have returned to great songs (Norah Jones, Katie Melua, Keane) and musicians who can really sing (Joss Stone) and really play (Jamie Cullum). Whether the 'cool' media like them or not, the public have turned to these artists in their droves. Never ones to miss a bandwagon, the major record companies are spending millions marketing a slew of 'new Norah Jones'' - this autumn will see pretty, retro, jazzy, singer/songwriters aplenty. Thankfully Miss Smith has no need to be the new anything. She doesn't even have a record label to 'mould' her. Amy is just happy that people want to hear the songs she so enjoys writing. Those songs aren't even recorded in a studio, but in her front room, with her band squeezed in between the TV and the sofa. This is no surprise to those who know her, because although music is the love of Amy's life, so is 'home'. She now lives in London, but Amy longs for Liverpool, and goes back whenever she can. When your favourite place in the whole wide world is the field next to Moseley Church and the view it gives of green and lovely South Liverpool, you don't stay away for long. "I really would like to spend the rest of my life writing and performing music, but my main ambition is to own a house in Liverpool, decorate it, then fill it with a cat, and someone who calls me 'mum'."