Imagine a girl from small town Tennessee, with a burning need to write and sing songs, who leaves the comfort and security of her family to try and make it in Los Angeles. Things go awry, a combination of bad luck, a relationship gone wrong and no money. She's just about to go home when she's offered refuge by Lisa Marie Presley . She sticks around in LA, playing in bands, earning a crust, before heading to New York. There she's signed up to play a leading part in one of the most acclaimed musical theatre pieces in recent years. Suddenly things are moving in the right direction. She signs a deal with major label. Only problem is, they see her as a pop artist. The relationship ends almost before it's begun. Restless as ever her journey takes her to London where she meets and immediately hits it off with Eg White. With a notebook full of self-penned lyrics, she sets about making the stunning debut album that is Wasted In Jackson. Produced by Eg White in his west London studio, highlights include the raspy, R&B-meets-gospel swagger of Not The Drinking and When The Night Kills The Day, a haunting, bluesy shuffle featuring the eerie sound of an ancient Steinway piano belonging to Ed Harcourt (who co-wrote the song) and the elegant playing of hip young folkslingers Mumford And Sons (whose frontman Marcus Mumford produced the song Since then Lauren and White, with occasional input from Ed Harcourt, have been writing and recording Wasted In Jackson. This spirit of inspired abandon, coalescing around Lauren's staggering voice (check her ear-tingling, sassy holler on the epic, strings-enhanced Hanging Up), makes for an album - all the lyrics penned by Lauren -stuffed with big, bold, confessional soul belters. Lauren has come a long way in her short years to be here. The hard showbiz lessons learnt during her graft on the stage in New York and on the LA bar circuit - and in the music biz pop factory - have stood her in great stead. And so have her experiences in her smalltown hometown.'Wasted In Jackson is the song that's dearest to me because it pays homage to a place that I love - not everyone who hears the song may agree with me! But also because it refers to what inspired the whole record. Being wasted in Jackson - had that not be the case, nothing else would have happened.'