Play It Fair.(Aimee-Ann Duffy)(Interview)

Byline: editor: Valerie Steiker

As her debut album arrives Stateside, Mark Holgate catches up with Duffy, the petite blonde Welsh singer with the big, bluesy voice.

Look! Isn't it great?" says Duffy excitedly. "I just bought it in Barneys yesterday!" The object of her adoration is a new Balenciaga bag, which she is holding aloft for inspection for all and sundry in an anonymous midtown coffee shop. Duffy is a teeny, tiny blonde Welsh singer whose look is pitched somewhere between Julie Christie in Billy Liar and a Left Bank beatnik; that is, little black dresses, dramatically lined eyes, blonde hair that flips out. And despite the fact that she wants to be known only by her last name, choosing to drop the Aimee-Ann, she is like any other 23-year-old on a trip to New York. There has been pizza at Patsy's, cocktails at the Time Hotel, and, yes, exhaustive shopping expeditions. Yet she is in possession of something far more precious than a Nicolas Ghesquiere--designed purse, something that truly sets her apart--her voice.

Duffy's vocal prowess, heard to dazzling effect on her premier effort, Rockferry, out next month, has already astounded just about everyone in Britain, where she has emerged as the front-runner of a whole new generation of post--Amy Winehouse chanteuses such as Adele, Candie Payne, et al. Imagine her as the aural offspring of LaVern Baker and Otis Redding and you're getting close to the husky, gritty tones of Duffy's voice, which on her debut swings from the soul strut of "Mercy" to the dramatically emotive on the anthem-like title track, whose lyrics chronicle a ...