Josie Field- Coming Soon!

It's hard not to reach for the superlatives when describing South African singer/ songwriter, Josie Field!

" I just grew up with my parents music, from Joni Mitchell to Van Morrison, and Bob Dylan. That was the basis of my love for music, just going through my parents LPs. I had an uncle who went overseas and left his guitar at my house. I knew the three chords from House of the Rising Sun so I started with that and just taught myself. And I pretty much started writing songs at the same time", explains Josie.

Her early material found its feet in folk, and the genre is still a subtle thread that winds its way through the songs on Mercury. The fact that she attended Johannesburg' s Michael Mount Waldorf School added to her belief in the possibility of creating something unique, something affecting and special using nothing more than her imagination and her guitar. You come out of a Waldorf school a lot freer I think and more in touch with who you are, although I think that if Id gone to any other school I would still be making music.

After matriculating in 2002, Josie went to an advertising school. " I thought it would be a creative kind of place but I realised that the music side was wanting to speak out, so I left after a year. I told my folks that it was not what I wanted to do and that I didn't want them wasting money on it. I felt that if I did complete the three years and then get a job, I would get used to the lifestyle and money and then find it very hard to change over to a music career, because its not an easy one," says Josie

That's an understatement. For Josie, she has single-mindedly been focused on making music her life for the past two-plus years, living simply, with the support of her parents in order to do this properly." I have spent the last two years looking for the right producer and trying to get my album recorded. It hasn't been easy. I am pretty shy, but had to start asking around for gigs and one of my first was at the Blues Room in Johannesburg. I went to watch a friend play and very hesitantly asked how one could get a gig there and I soon found myself playing for a crowd." It was there that several people in the industry noticed Josie and the word about her talent spread.

Josie's is one of the strongest pop albums to have claimed space on the South African music scene for a while and when set against the hastily throw together recordings of medleys that many call pop in South Africa, it simply sparkles.

But don't mistake Josie for only being able to move in a single genre. Her versatility was amply demonstrated by her 2004 collaboration with punk/rock band Tweak and hip-hop artist Pro-Verb. The song they wrote and recorded together Can You Feel It Building - appears on The Coca Cola Collaboration album and spent a few weeks at number one on UCT radio in Cape Town, as well as receiving airplay on 5fm, Tuks fm and East Coast Radio.

She performs regularly as a solo artist as well as with a band, and is a compelling figure on stage, her slender form belying the emotional strength of her lyric writing and her off-kilter vocal delivery that support her fantastic songs.

Josie's sound has been compared to the likes of Alanis Morissette- but if comparisons are helpful, she's more Beth Orton than anything else. Still, see her in performance, listen to her unusual yet striking voice and lyrical phrasing and mostly, sink into her terrific songs and you will know that Josie's is nothing short of a singular talent.