Duffy

Stubb’s, 8pm

Open the CD booklet that graces Duffy’s debut, Rockferry, and written on the first page you’ll find a one-liner that reads, “A bag of songs and a heavy heart.” This simple sentiment explains the emotive power that’s propelled the 23-year-old Welsh singer to the top of the UK charts.

At face value, her rise has been meteoric. Her first single, the album’s Dusty Springfield-styled title track, dented the UK Top 30 in late 2007 before her second, “Mercy,” rose to the chart’s very summit. Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll find that Duffy has spent the last decade finding her voice and paying her dues.

Born in Nefyn, North Wales, and raised in Pembrokeshire when her parents divorced, Amy Ann Duffy began singing at the age of 11 when she was given a karaoke machine for Christmas. In a town where there was “no cinema, no record shop, or even a youth club,” the young Duffy began to view music as an escape, scribbling down her lyrics in a notebook and using her karaoke machine – which she describes as “a dear friend” – to make her first recordings. She sent the resulting tapes to assorted record labels “with a little schoolgirl of myself.”

While she failed to secure a deal, she grew in confidence and ability, eventually winning a talent competition in Cardiff that brought her to the attention of Rough Trade’s Janette Lee, a woman with a long, distinguished career in independent music but with a great love of soul. It was Lee who teamed Duffy with ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler.

“Bernard was the first to call me a soul singer,” she smiles. “That opened up so many avenues.”

Indeed, her Rockferry debut, large chunks of which were co-written and co-produced by Butler, finds Duffy exploring varying soul textures without closing the door on her potential populist appeal. If the title track recalls Springfield, “Warwick Avenue” channels Motown’s smooth pop approach. “Mercy,” meanwhile, is reminiscent of something tougher and underlines that Duffy recently stood toe-to-toe with soul great Eddie Floyd when the pair duetted on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny TV show. Duffy’s aware that hers has been a rather steep learning curve.

“It’s been a real education making this record,” she admits. “I’ve done lots of homework, discovered Millie Jackson, Doris Duke, the Supremes, Rita Wright, Betty Swann, Candi Staton. They inspire me down to the bone, to every inch of my soul. They’re so painfully expressive, so resonating. That’s what I want to be. That’s how I found out who I was.”

While Duffy’s identity has begun to stamp itself all across the UK in an indelible manner, one senses the same thing could happen in the U.S. – starting with this MOJO show at Stubb’s in preparation of the U.S. release of Rockferry in May. After all, last year a relatively unknown UK singer also delivered a set of arresting performances at SXSW. Her name: Amy Winehouse.

Four more ‘MOJO’ Brit Picks:

Liz Green, Latitude 30, 8:30pm

Sons & Daughters, SXSW Live @ Austin Convention Center, 7pm

Christopher Rees, 18th Floor @ Hilton Garden, 12mid

British Sea Power, Maggie Mae’s Rooftop, 1am

This article appears in March 14 • 2008.

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