Dan's Papers - July 25, 2008 - Singer-Songwriter KT Tunstall Live at WHBPAC

2005 was a big year for Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall, who will be taking the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center stage this Sunday, August 3. After a standout impromptu performance on the popular BBC music show, "Later with Jools Holland," her first album, Eye to the Telescope, was re-released to critical acclaim and commercial success, skyrocketing 70 spots to #3 on the UK charts and receiving a Mercury Music Prize nomination. Not bad...but could the achievements translate to dollars on the other side of the Atlantic?

Not right away, it turned out. A decent US debut in February 2006 secured a spot for Tunstall's single, "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree," on the Billboard charts - at #79. It would take time and a little something called "American Idol" - on which the single was performed for a Billboard-themed episode by contestant Katherine McPhee - to snatch Tunstall out from under that cherry tree and launch her into the North American spotlight. Whatever you think of the pop music magic-maker (and, at the time, Tunstall wasn't particularly impressed), there's no denying its power. After McPhee's "Idol" performance, Americans were all ears, and the single immediately jumped to #23.

Tunstall's signature sound, which Rolling Stone calls "high-gloss folk pop, confessional in form if not in content, crafted with intelligent attention to every detail," continued with KT Tunstall's Acoustic Extravaganza in 2006, and Drastic Fantastic in 2007. In its first week, the latter reached #1 on the Scottish charts, #3 in the UK and #9 in the US. Tunstall received her first Grammy Award nomination in 2007, for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree," and was nominated for her fourth BRIT award in January 2008, for British Female Solo Artist. Several of Tunstall's hits have also been heard in the background of some of the biggest shows on TV, including "Will & Grace," "So You Think You Can Dance," "Ugly Betty" and "Grey's Anatomy." And the single "Suddenly I See" was downloaded like never before after running in the opening scene of the hugely successful 2006 film, The Devil Wears Prada.

For Tunstall, the worldwide acclaim is worlds away from a quiet childhood spent in St. Andrews, where her adoptive father was a physicist at the university of the same name and her mother was a teacher. Tunstall claims she learned how to sing by listening to Ella Fitzgerald tapes, and how to play guitar from instructional books. After attending the Kent School in Connecticut on a scholarship, she returned to Scotland, where she studied music at Royal Holloway College and immersed herself in the area's alternative folk and grassroots music scene. Eventually, she made her way to London, where she collaborated with several songwriters and producers before joining forces with Steve Osborne, who'd worked with U2 and New Order, among others. The show-stopping performance on "Later with Jools Holland," for which she'd received less than 24 hours notice after hip-hop artist Nas canceled, was the accidental break she needed to get the public attention she deserved.

It will be another spectacular performance fans enjoy this weekend at WHBPAC, where, thanks to the theater's one-of-a-kind, intimate performance space, fans can suddenly see KT Tunstall like never before.

Tunstall's performance caps an entertainment-packed weekend at the WHBPAC, where master musician Habib Koite and his band, Bamada, perform on Friday, August 1, and comedienne Wanda Sykes tickles East End funny bones on Saturday, August 2. For more information and to order tickets, call 631-288-1500.