MUSIC: Gin Wigmore

I love me some Joss Stone. It could be said that we have a history together. The smokey groove of her voice and its ability to drip off of every single soulful note it touches is masterful. Which is why I was intrigued when an advertisement on the side of my Facebook account invited me to check out New Zealand's own Gin Wigmore, comparing her to my favorite British soul singer.

While the two of them sound nothing alike, they both choose intriguingly pieces of music and bring heartfelt meaning to them. Sounding like a cross between Macy Gray, Bonnie Raitt, MoZella, and Missy Higgins, Wigmore's songs are inventive in the way they combine elements of pop, jazz, soul, and folk music into one beautiful heap. Born Virginia Wigmore, her most recent album, and first full-length, Holy Smoke, includes the infectious single "Oh My" as well as the rousing "Hey Ho" and the jazzy piano bar ballad "Dying Day".

Wigmore's EP, appropriately titled Extended Play contains some of her more tender and emotionally charged material like "These Roses" and "Hallelujah" about her father's death from cancer when she was a teenager. It's not easy, but I'm hoping this Kiwi makes it across the ocean into the earbuds of the American conscience; if Joss can do it, surely Gin can too!

Sergio del Limónar