Enjoying one of 2008's fastest on-line groundswells, following the digital release of its first single, Virgin Records singer-songwriter/guitarist Tristan Prettyman's second album Hello has entered the Billboard Top 200 sales chart at No. 27. This marks a career high in both chart position and weekly sales for Tristan.
The rapturously romantic first single and video, "Madly," has proven to be an instant deal-closer for both physical and digital sales of the full album.
Driven by exposure of "Madly" as the iTunes Single of the Week, the complete Hello album download, immediately spiked to the No. 2 position in overall iTunes album sales, and has stayed there ever since, rubbing shoulders with newly-released heavy hitters by Mariah Carey and Leona Lewis, and such long-term hits as the Juno film soundtrack. 84% of first-week album sales occurred in full-album downloads on iTunes alone. At the same time, Prettyman's 2005 Virgin Records debut album twentythree also appeared - for the first time - in the iTunes album Top 50, coat-tailed impressively by the new album.
The irresistible consistency of Hello was pointed out in a B+ Entertainment Weekly review that praised Prettyman's "brisk vocals on 'Echo'…the Southern-laced 'A Little Bit' and the slow-burning 'California Girl," also pointing out "In Bloom" as a "lushly orchestrated ballad that could've been a lost track from Fiona Apple's Tidal" and summing up Tristan's talent as "maturing by the minute." The overwhelming on-line reaction to Tristan's album puts her in the company of such recent singer-songwriter breakthrough artists as Colbie Caillat and Sara Bareilles.
Tristan will appear on the cover of Foam Magazine (on stands May 15th) and will be profiled on the television entertainment magazine program Extra in the same month.
Prettyman continues to play headline dates through the end of April (see details below), and makes a five-date swing through Japan in mid-May. Prettyman is also looking forward to a unique series of volunteer beach cleanup and restoration events between May and August 2008, sponsored by the Barefoot Wine Beach Rescue Project, in partnership with the Surfrider Foundation.
Hello was recorded in London with the British producers and songwriters Martin Terefe (KT Tunstall) and Sacha Skarbek (James Blunt, Tunstall). With its gorgeous and expressive blend of warm vocalism, finger-picked acoustic guitar, pedal-steel, Wurlitzer, Hammond organ, and strings, Hello is beautifully evocative of the influential folk and country-blues fusions of The Band, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan. Drawn to their "pure and uncontrived" music during her break following two-and-a-half years on the road behind twentythree, Prettyman says, "I really wanted the album to be a reflection of me. I've gone through so many changes, and I think the album definitely reflects that. I've never been more excited about anything in my life as I am with this record. It is so me."
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