For all the talk about Holiday, Rae reminds Dana Marshall, music director and midday DJ for a Triple A station in Boston, of another quiet singer-songwriter who made a major splash.
"Some years ago someone handed me Norah Jones and they said `You should listen to this, she's going to be a big star in our format,'" says Marshall, who predicts Rae will follow a similar path, crossing over to Top 40 and beyond. "I think a year from now we'll be having this conversation and laughing about it. I think this is a song and an artist that can't be denied."
A bigger compliment for Rae would be comparisons to Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, one of her idols growing up and an inspiration for the harder-rocking Helen. She plays a cover of Since I've Been Loving You in her live show.
And even though her own music is considerably more sedate than that of her heroes like Plant, Radiohead, and Bjork, she feels a connection to them.
"I think the main thing about it is the style is really raw, and that's what I wanted to keep in the way of writing songs. I don't want to put anything in that's too fiddly musically or too overly complicated for the sake of it," she says. "I like to keep things really simple."
It's as simple as her directive to listeners to put some records on and enjoy themselves. Which begs the question, for someone who grew up squarely in the compact disc age, does Rae have any actual records to put on?
"Oh yeah, it's a really big scene in England to collect vinyl," she answers with a laugh. Rae and her saxophonist husband, Jason have amassed tons of sides on classic hip-hop and soul artists. "We've got their stuff on record because that's how it was put out, and so I feel like that's how you should still connect to it."
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