But wait a sec. There is, not surprisingly, a lot more to it than that.

Blunt’s family has a long military tradition, so they weren’t exactly at a loss when it came time to advise the nascent singer/songwriter on a paying profession. “Like any parents, mine wanted me to have a secure job with a regular wage and career prospects,” he explains. “And the one job my father knew of, that he’d had experience of himself, was the army, so he could help me in that direction.”

One of the results of his subsequent tour of duty in Kosovo was “No Bravery,” a rapier-edged report that ends debut album Back to Bedlam on a note far removed from the otherwise placid, dreamy set. “I guess it’s always nice to be able to capture your life’s experiences in a song and hold the emotion in that way,” he says.

Within a year of leaving the army, he was signed to Atlantic/Custard and recording Bedlam in Los Angeles.

A support slot on Elton John’s 2004 tour followed, and Bedlam, led by the enchanting single “You’re Beautiful,” started flying off the shelves, gaining reviews comparing him favorably to the likes of Coldplay and Elliott Smith. This year finds him relentlessly touring the U.S. and Europe as a headliner, with appearances at several high-profile festivals like Coachella also on the slate.

Lest one start throwing about the “overnight sensation” term, however, Blunt says, “Well, I’m 28 now and I’ve been planning this since I was 14 so it’s actually taken a really long time, but when it’s right things move fast.”

And how does his family view his career choice now?

“They’ve been really supportive. They’re my number one fans,” he laughs, “and in fact my mother’s my first stalker.”

Smith, who earned an Oscar nod in 1997 for the original song "Miss Misery" from the film Good Will Hunting, had been battling drug and alcohol addiction for years but was supposedly sober for the past year. "He was in the middle of writing his next record. He had recorded a good chunk of it. He was incredibly optimistic," DreamWorks executive Luke Woode told Reuters. He was working on his sixth studio album, tentatively titled From A Basement On The Hill.

Born Steven Paul Smith in Omaha, Nebraska, he grew up in Dallas and Portland, Oregon where he began writing songs as a teenager, changing his name to Elliott because Steve sounded too "jockish." After graduating from college in Amherst, Mass., he returned to Portland and started a punk band with a college friend called Heatmiser with whom he recorded three albums. He released his debut solo album in 1994 entitled Roman Candle (Cavity Search), followed in 1995 by Elliott Smith and in 1997 by Either/Or both on independent label Kill Rock Stars. He signed to DreamWorks in 1998 soon after his performance on the Oscar telecast and released XO and 2000's Figure 8. In 1999, his cover of the Beatles' song "Because" was included on the soundtrack to the Academy Award-winning movie American Beauty and in August of this year, Smith released the vinyl single, "Pretty (Ugly Before)," with the flip side, "A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity to Be Free," his first recorded work since Figure 8.]]> 2003-10-23T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/233545 Artists, Badly Drawn Boy, Smith, B.C., Smith, Elliott, Musical Styles, Pop, Rock, Musicworld, Hitmaker One of 2000's most acclaimed releases - and the winner of England's prestigious Mercury Music Prize - came from England's Badly Drawn Boy, aka Manchester-based Damon Gough. Badly Drawn Boy's The Hour of Bewilderbeast - which Q magazine dubbed "the indie rock Pet Sounds" - has earned Gough comparisons with such esteemed singer/songwriters as Nick Drake, Gram Parsons, Elliott Smith, Beck, Scott Walker and Burt Bacharach.

In a recent album review, Rolling Stone noted that Gough has "mastered the art of evoking melancholy without slathering on too much sentimentality," while Spin commented that the album "feels like a jumbly, intuitive mix tape, with fragments and drowsy doodling suddenly broken by lovely, complete ballads." Indeed, the 18-track album runs the emotional and stylistic gamut, offering understatedly evocative songs that mix intimate introspection with lo-fi rock, though Gough resists the latter characterization.

Gough grew up under the influence of his musical hero Bruce Springsteen, and began writing seriously in 1990, eventually purchasing a used four-track tape deck to record his compositions in his bedroom. In the mid-'90s, Gough moved to Manchester and helped to set up indie label Twisted Nerve, which released three early Badly Drawn Boy EPs. He got an unlikely career boost after The Fall's Mark E. Smith mistook Gough's car for a taxi outside of a Manchester bar and demanded to be driven home; Gough agreed, provided that The Fall record his song "Tumbleweed."

In 1998, Gough won considerable attention in the U.K. after collaborating on a track, "Nursery Rhyme," with James Lavelle and DJ Shadow for their popular UNKLE album. The resulting record-company bidding war ended with Gough opting to sign with the relatively small XL label, home of The Prodigy. As the 31-year-old Gough, who in November undertook his first U.S. tour, explains, he's never been in a rush to become a pop star. "I don't mind if it takes 20 years for people to realize how good an album this is," says Gough. "I totally didn't write it to fit in with what's going on, or is accepted, right now. I just wanted it to be considered a classic piece of work."

]]> 2001-01-31T17:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/233589 Artists, Smith, Elliott, Musical Styles, Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Musicworld, Hitmaker On his new album Figure 8, Elliott Smith combines his usual acoustic style with a background of psychedelic arrangements, creating a sound that is easy to listen to and extremely soothing. The emotional lyrics that this singer/songwriter has become known for are as prevalent as ever.

With song titles like "Everything Reminds Me of Her," "Everything Means Nothing to Me," and "Somebody That I Used To Know," it becomes obvious that the listener is in for a number of depressing tracks. At the same time, however, the relaxing mood of other songs is bound to leave you in good spirits. Tracks such as the album-opening "Son of Sam" and "Junk Bond Trader" are upbeat despite dark lyrics.

The album is a strong follow-up to Smith's last release, XO, which was named one of Spin's Top 20 Albums of 1998. That year also saw him named Spin's #2 Artist of the Year, behind Lauryn Hill.

Prior to XO, Smith released Either/Or, which landed him four songs in the film Good Will Hunting and a performance at the 1998 Academy Awards, which gave him much-needed exposure. Earlier in his career, Smith helped form the indie rock band Heatmiser, which released three albums. Even while playing with the band, he did his best work as a solo artist, releasing Roman Candle in 1994 and Elliott Smith in 1995.

On his earlier albums and certainly on Figure 8, Smith sings of enough heartache to listen to after your next break-up, but, oddly, is uplifting enough for a Sunday afternoon drive.