ALICE SMITH
Who She Is This Washington, D.C., native is a seductive mix of Nina Simone and Alicia Keys. Last year, Smith, 29, dropped her indie debut, For Lovers, Dreamers & Me, to critical acclaim but weak sales. She'll rerelease the disc this month on her new label, Epic. ''[We're] just freshening it up a little bit,'' she says, ''because a lot of people really never heard it.''
Why She's Exciting The lanky Smith may look delicate, but she has the pipes of a true blues chanteuse, as evidenced on tracks like the single ''New Religion.'' Childhood trips to her grandma's farm in Georgia helped mold her husky, emotional sound. Says Smith, who's already recording a follow-up CD in Hawaii: ''I'm a black woman, and I essentially grew up in the South, so my voice is colored that way. No pun intended.'' — Tim Stack
EW.com Exclusive ''Dream'' (unreleased remix) (to hear it, use the player below)
