COURTESY PHOTO

A thing of beauty

Beguiling folk singer-songwriter
Mia Doi Todd deserves a much
wider audience

I FIRST HEARD of Mia Doi Todd when she did her one-and-only major-label album - called "The Golden State" - for Columbia three years ago.

"Manzanita" Mia Doi Todd (Plug Research)

One would have thought that this introspective indie folk singer with the beguiling, dusky voice would get the wider, national attention that she deserved, but such was not the case. Still, she perseveres, singing and writing lovely, meditative songs of emotional depth. Her latest album - named for the Spanish-named "little apple" trees that predominate in California - only solidifies her reputation as a jewel of a musician.

If you go to her Web site, the only consolation to promotion is the video to her song "My Room Is White." The video - which shows her on a darkened road, her starkly lit face coming in and out of the camera's focus - is an apt visual complement to her waltz-like song.

Over a quiet background of acoustic guitar, piano and bongos, Todd perfectly expresses those particular moments in our lives when decisions must be made between two people to help bring their relationship back into focus. In the song's second verse, she sings in that clear and distinctive cadence of hers:

"The tide comes in, and we're caught
by the rocks and the wetness - neverendless.
We kiss for the first time, our lips and tongues
tied in fitness - infiniteness.
Then the ocean pulls back somehow,
to reveal a crowd of uncertainty."

Todd takes such care with her poetic music that one can't help but give her equal attention - and it never feels precious. Even when she breaks mood on "Casa Nova," backed by her rocksteady reggae friends Future Pigeon, she proves she can adapt to any musically sympathetic occasion and reveal a playful side to her art.

But much of "Manzanita" cuts to the core of human experience. There's the wonderful "The Last Night of Winter," brushed with a hint of strings, telling of a long-distance love with "magic just beneath the surface." The quizzical nature of "Tongue-tied" is driven home with the syncopation of electric guitar, mandolin and handclaps.

Todd is at her most mesmerizing when it's just her voice and a single instrument accompaniment, whether it be piano, as on the nakedly expressed affirmation of life of "Muscle, Bone & Blood," or classical guitar, as on the questioning soul of "Luna Lune" and the sharing "I Gave You My Home."

I can't recommend the artistry of Mia Doi Todd enough. "Manzanita" is a thing of beauty.