Name	Beth Orton
Height	6'
Naionality	United Kingdom
Date of Birth	14 December 1970
Place of Birth	Norfolk, England, UK
Famous for

Beth Orton has one of rock & roll's strangest job descriptions: a boho folkie who strums her acoustic guitar for everyone from punk rockers to club kids. She got her start hanging around dance producers William Orbit and the Chemical Brothers, lending her voice to give their break beats a human touch; she sings the hangover rhapsodies "Alive: Alone" and "Where Do I Begin" on the early Chemical Brothers albums. On the chemical sister's stunning 1996 debut, Trailer Park, her bleak voice and guitar weave in and out of moody dance beats in "Someone's Daughter," "She Cries Your Name," a heartbroken cover of Ronnie Spector's "I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine," and the fantastic 10-minute sex-and-death finale "Galaxy of Emptiness." All over Trailer Park, she wails like a bummed-out angel in the badlands of love.

On Central Reservation, Orton sounds none too chemical, ditching the techno beats of the debut for a woozy folk-rock record that recalls Big Star's Sister Lovers and Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left: piano, strings, vibes, congas, and an acoustic guitar with a bad case of the shakes. Orton moans bleary love songs like "Stolen Car," "Sweetest Decline," and "Feel to Believe," and even when they end in tears, she makes you feel how much fun it is to drink ale at dawn with the boy with the cinnamon eyes. "Pass in Time" is a seven-minute duet with British folk legend Terry Callier; the two collaborated on Orton's 1997 Best Bit EP, which is strictly for fans of British folk legends. Daybreaker blends the organic style of Central Reservation and the debut's techno experiments, offering mixed but still impressive results. She reunites with both Orbit and the Chemicals while teaming up with country mavericks Emmylou Harris ("God Song") and Ryan Adams ("Concrete Sky"). But the sound is the one she's long since established as her own, particularly the melancholy splendor of "Mount Washington." Whenever Orton opens her mouth, she's bitching and bewitching, a space cowgirl with a stolen-car heart.