The Review

Issue date: 11/13/07 Section: Mosaic

Media Credit: Courtesy of Rahav Segev

With an accent that could only be characterized by a deep-rooted Scottish upbringing, KT Tunstall couldn't sound farther from the typical pop starlet. This is perhaps due to her academically focused mother and father, a teacher and physician, respectively, her serene St. Andrews hometown or possibly the fact that, at 32, she broke into the music scene merely three years ago.

Whatever the source, one thing is clear - Tunstall's outlook on life and attitude toward the power of lyrics could not be more sincere, and when likened to a female Bono, she playfully jokes to "pass me the yellow glasses, baby."

Tunstall started slow, spending more than a decade as a starving singer/songwriter before starting to gain a solid fan base overseas. Then, when "American Idol" contestant Katherine McPhee chose to cover her single "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree," Tunstall was thrust into the American-music limelight.

Her first album, "Eye To The Telescope," has since been certified platinum in the United States, selling nearly 4 million copies worldwide.

"It was such a shock to me that it worked," Tunstall says. "I was confident enough that I could get a career out of music and not have to get another job. But I really didn't bargain for all of this."

She says her experience within the music industry has left her faithful to one motto -"luck is being ready."

"When you try for a long time to try and make something happen you develop a pretty strange relationship with the idea of being lucky," she says. "The best advice is to just not be afraid of any opportunity that comes your way. If it feels right just go and do it. There are these secret windows that open in your life and sometimes you see them and sometimes you don't. But if you really open your eyes to them there is a lot more than maybe you think."

Perhaps the most impacting opportunity Tunstall seized with her growing success was the ability to make a difference with her fame, especially when it came to issue of politics and the environment.

"I grew up in a beautiful part of Scotland," Tunstall says. "I was lucky enough to grow up in a place that was fantastically attractive to look at, and when natural landscape comes to a threat you really, really feel it when it's something you're attached to. It's always made sense to me to try and do something about that."

What Tunstall has done is literally focus her lifestyle, album sales and touring around the "green" theme.

Continued...

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