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In a modern world full of complications, hopes, betrayals, infatuations and disappointments, 23-year-old Fran Smith believes very strongly that it is the duty of songwriters to dive in head-first and explore its depths as beautifully and honestly as possible. And that’s exactly what she has set out to do, via her own compelling brand of idiosyncratic piano-poetry.

Although influenced by traditional folksongs and legends, Smith’s own songs are not epic ballads that span lifetimes, so much as carefully considered snapshots, voyeuristically capturing their characters’ most intimate confessions and passionate rages . Perhaps it’s her stubbornly undisguised northern accent, or the diverse energy and sensitivity in her powerful voice, but Smith manages to make age-old themes of love, death, power and temptation sound fresh, relevant and most importantly, identifiable. Songs like “Orion” and “Alexander” have the romance and mystical grandeur expected of a Rufus Wainwright or Stevie Nicks composition, yet there is an unpretentious quality that makes Smith’s lyrics instantly accessible. For all their poetry, these songs are unmistakeably the work of an ordinary 20-something lass from Yorkshire.

Citing influences as diverse as Leonard Cohen, The Velvet Underground and Joan As Police Woman, Smith is evidently as much a fan of good song-writing as she is a creator of it, and it is this love of songs that moves her to write “whatever feels honest - because even a song that initially feels very personal to write, like ‘It Takes So Much Time‘, turns out to be universal and an experience that people identify with. Lines like, ‘no one gives a toss about anybody else‘s loss‘ - that‘s quite crass, it’s something you‘re not really meant to say! But when it‘s your loved one that‘s dying, it doesn‘t mean a thing that thousands of other people are dying around the world at that same moment - it‘s no consolation. And weirdly, if people come up to me at the end of a show and tell me they like the song, that‘s the line they always remember and quote back to me!”

Last year, Smith was asked by Rachel Unthank & the Winterset (2008 Mercury Music Prize nominees) to support them as part of their sold-put UK tour. Now based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Smith has since supported The Mercurymen and rising indie stars Kill It Kid, and she performed her biggest solo show to date at The Sage Gateshead before a rapturous local audience. In the meantime, the demo tracks she has uploaded to her MySpace page are attracting attention from a whole other audience. Acclaimed songwriters Devon Sproule, Karine Polwart, Catherine Feeny and Lucy Wainwright Roche have all been online complimenting Smith on her talents as a composer and vocalist, praise that Smith describes as “amazing… that these women whose songs I listen to almost every day are kind enough to take the time to listen and give feedback. I‘m very chuffed!”