Renee Olstead - Skylark

Next time Saturday morning comes when you can have some YOU time, cue up this album and relax to some music for the soul. Renee Olstead serves up somes beautiful notes while you have a sip of your latte and a yummy pastry. Great for a solo morning, and yet subtle enough to have on while having a conversation with your morning guest, this album is great for dinner parties too.

This singer-actor's sophomore major label disc comes four years after its initial release date. Whatever the hold-up, the Texan wunderkind, now 20, has grown into her voice, bringing subtlety and resonance to womanly tunes such as "Lover Man" and "My Baby Just Cares For Me." Her rich, graceful sound is a cross between Tierney Sutton and Christina Aguilera, and hitmaker David Foster has her dishing up jazz-flavored pop big-band style on standards such as "You've Changed" and the title track. She's been called a female Michael Bublé, which isn't far off the mark.