• • GO BY MICHAEL GILTZ ny three-week span out of the year will find New York filled with world-class musicians playing stages large and small, uptown and downtown, in outer boroughs and in Manhattan hot spots. But over the next 19 days, an incredible array of major artists in multiple genres - Scotland's KT Tunstall, Russian-born Regina Spektor, the country female duo the Wreckers, Grammy winner India.Arie, singer-songwriter Nellie McKay, and Tony winner Audra McDonald - will descend on the city. That hum you hear is the whole town getting in the groove. "Tour buses in the U.S. just kick a­ KT TUNSTALL ~ compared to European ones!" Tun· stall says with a note of incredillousness. CD: "Eye to the Telescope" "American tour buses are so swanky. They NEXT UP: "Acoustic Extravaganza," have all" fresheners and carpets!" due Oct. 17 What really stops her in her tracks is Performs: Oct. 6 and 7 at Webster Hall how crowds in so many places know the words to every song on "Telescope." (Her merica's first glimpse of the talents of tune "Miniature Disasters" has been used AUDRA McDONALD Scottish singer-songwriter KTTunstall on lVs "Grey's Anatomy," and "Suddenly RON SACHS EPA Acame when "Amelican Idol" contestant I See" was in this summer's hit film 'The Katharine McPhee performed Thnstall's Devil Wears Prada.") "It's so bizarre," says it in their faces!" Branch says with a laugh. U.K. hit "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" Thnstall. "We went to Annapolis. We didn't "But on another level, we worked really on her knees in front of millions of view­ even know there was a place called Annap­ hard for this and we followed our guts, and ers. It gave McPhee instant credibility and olis. We thought it was a typo. Was it sup­ it was a big change for both of us. And for earned raves from Simon Cowell. posed to be Minneapolis? Indianapolis? it to work was pretty miraculous." But it was strange for the wom­ But it was an amazing show. It's like, you Even though New York doesn't have a an whose song it was, since Tun- close your eyes and you're in your bed­ country-music station, it feels like home for stall dumped her 1V set a few room playing, then you open your eyes the Arizona native (she and Harp recorded years ago "because it was melt­ and there are people from Annapolis in the CD at a studio in the Meatpacking Dis­ ing my brain." Did she ques­ your room. It's mad!" trict). But soon they'll be back on the road, tion giving her permission with Branch's daughter by her side. to "Idol"? "She's a good tour baby," says Branch. "It was a quandary, THE WRECKERS ~ "The only thing I feel guilty about is that definitely," says Tun­ she doesn't see any other children. All she stall. ~It was a really CD: "Stand Still, Look Pretty" knows are roadies. It's funny to see'tl\e bi difficult decision, be­ Perfonn,: Sept. 27 at a benefit at tattooed, hasn' l-showered-in.weeks guy~ cause' really don't Crobar for breast-cancer awareness come over and start talking baby talk. .. like pop reality shows. But ... at the end of the ichelle Branch had two hit albums day, I would've been a as an indie artist; both had gone .. AUDRA MCOo" fool to say no. It got my Mplatinum and received strong re­ song heard by 40 million views. Her close friend Jessica Harp CD: "Build 0 Bridge" ~, '" , Performs: Oct. 11 and 12 people." was just about to record her major-la­ atLincciln ~'~~ In the end, Tunstall, 31, bel debut. But the two women were Center's AUen Room thought McPhee did a good drawn to the notion of recording coun­ try music as a duo. ctress and singer Audra MCDonald', job and was happy to have help says she began acting lessons as winning over America the way No one else liked the idea. a' , • she has the U.K. In Britain, her CD "There was a lot of pressure from Achild to counteract her hyperacti~,; Clearly, it didn't take. ~~. ," "Eye to the Telescope" has been a different people," says the 23-year-old She's currently workshopping a revJ.v.w huge critical and commercial success, Branch. "A lot of people weren't hap­ of"IIO in the Shade," heading to Broa!!! peaking at No.3 and snagging Tun­ py with this little idea that we had. Then a couple weeks after finishing way in the spring. She appears on pa,sin a stall a Brit Award for Best Female Solo concert next month, around the (\me Artist. the record, I found out I was preg­ sam~ nant [Branch is married to her bass she's filming a 1V-movie version of her re­ "' started coming out to the States in vivial of "A Raisin in the Sun" with Sean fall 2005, doing venues like the Living player, Teddy Landau]. We tried to Combs (it'll air on ABC next year). On Room in New York," says Tunstall. "I keep it a secret as long as possible. "So we were on Maverick Re­ New Year's Eve, she'll perform on "Live loved it. Then we did Mercury Lounge. .. From Lincoln Center." In February, she's And now we've got a few nights at Web­ cords, and , relt like they were gon­ doing a KUrt Weill opera in Los Angeles ster Hall, U's fantastic. But it's a bloody na throw [the CD] out there and if it didn't stick, they'd move on.· co-starring Patti LuPone. And then there's massive country." her recurring role on the new NBC drama to Not that she's complaining: Tunstall Turns out, everyone was wrong o "Kidnapped." o loves the U.S. She lived in Connecticut - even Branch and Harp themselves, As N Oh, and she has an album coming out for her senior year of high school and fell the Wreckers, the two have become the .f in love with American music, '" was ac­ first country duo to hit No.1 with a de­ Tuesday. N Called "Build a Bridge," the CD is a de­ tually doing a solo tour of coffee shops," but single ("Leave the Pieces") since the :;; parture for the performer, who's won Tony .0 she says. "I really couldn't face being like mammoth-selling Brooks & Dunn. Now, E Awards for her work in dramatic produc­ Phoebe from 'Friends'! Because I've sat in their little side-project idea has taken on ~ tions like "Raisin" and the moody musical <l> coffee shops and when a girl with a guitar a life of its own. U) "Carouse!." Unlike her eclectic coUection came in, I've just groaned. I've felt like, "The people who were the biggest of theater and art songs. "Bridge" is domi· ~ Please don't ruin my scone!" naysayers are now the biggest a-kiss­ '0 nated by pop from the likes of Neil YOung, But now, she says, touring is a dream, ers. It feels really good it worked out this 3 Laura Nyro and Elvis CosteUo. Costello's (f) especially with our great. .. tour buses? wayan a totally selfish level of rubbing .. CD VI C cZ gems by John Mayer, Rufus Wainwright REGINA SPEKTOR f:' and Nellie McKay. -... ,, ~~- ., ......... .... ... "'~ ............ ~--~-- ?< "All these songs, apart from the one CD: "Begin to Hope" z that's actually from a Broadway show Performs: Sept. 27 and 28 at Town Hall ["Dividing Day: from "The Light in the ~ Piazza"], sound like they could be in a mu­ Bronx girl by way of Moscow, sical: McDonald says. "I didn't want to do Regina Spektor may have a flashy all theater music this time. But I'm stiIJ at­ AWeb site and the obligatory MySpace tracted to songs that fill the requirements page, but she has developed as an artist in for a theater song - they all have an emo­ a remarkably old-fashioned manner: re­ tionalarc." leasing albums on a smaller label, touring, doing the requisite press and slowly work­ ing her way up. Now, Sire Records has re­ .. NELLIE Mc~Y __ leased her sixth - and breakthrough­ album, "Begin to Hope." CD: "Get Away From Me" And like many of the best songwriters, Next Up: "Pretty Little Head" in October Spektor creates tunes that are firmly root­ Perfonns: At a benefit concert Oct. 4 at ed in where she lives. On "That Time: she the ff1ro Balrroom sings, "Hey remember that time when 1 found a human tooth on Delancey?" And he hasn't even released h~r second al­ . "Summer in the City" has a line that cer­ bum yet, but Nellie McKay has had a tain New Yorkers might embrace: "I'm so though the subject matler [on the new CD] storied, crisis-filled career. Her first is not sexual, because it talks about rela­ S lonely lonely lonely! So 1 went to a protest CD, "Get Away From Me," is often called just to rub up against strangers." tionships, it has a more sensual element to the orJy double-album debut by a woman it. And that, to me, is very womanly." Yet it's her song "Fidelity" that stops in history - and McKay had to fight her the show. Spektor performed it recently It also talks about heartbreak: Arie was label, Sony, to get it out.