CityLife

So Fur so good for solo Jenny

JENNY Lewis, in her high-pitched, honeyed voice, says: "Wait a minute, let me turn that down," before disappearing for a few seconds. The music in the background suddenly stops, there's a clatter, then she's back on the phone. "Sorry about that."

With just a few hours to kill before soundcheck, Lewis is relaxing in a Glasgow hotel room, where she arrived "about an hour and a half ago". It's a hardcore international tour, practically a gig a night for two whole months, following a smattering of dates earlier in the year to coincide with the release of her first solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat.

Better known as the frontwoman of Nebraska-based indie-rockers Rilo Kiley, Lewis is happy to be working on her own material for a while. She recorded Rabbit Fur Coat with Chandra and Leigh Watson, a pair of white, gospel-singing sisters from LA who also accompany her on tour.

Cutting her teeth as she did in the company of a close-knit band like Rilo Kiley - themselves part of the close-knit Saddle Creek record company community - it's tempting to think Lewis took on the twins for company as much as for their complementary sound. Was she scared of being alone?

Rice

"A little," she says. "We got together when I was invited to play a show with Johnathan Rice (her boyfriend) and I was afraid to sing on my own, so I sang with the twins, and I think we all felt how well it worked."

The album features guest appearances from a gaggle of leftfield luminaries - Conor Oberst (aka Bright Eyes), Ben Gibbard (Postal Service, Death Cab for Cutie), Greg Kurstin (Beck), Rachel Blumberg (The Decemberists) - to create a moody collection of songs, referencing folk, country, Southern gospel and, most of all, one particular album that Lewis loved as a child.

"The main inspiration was Laura Nyro's Gonna Take A Miracle," she says. "It's one of those records that seems to appear in my life every five years or so. I've also always been a fan of the Sun Records sound. I think it's a sound that's very simple, it's not a wall of sound - you can hear all the instruments. And the space that creates is haunting."

Leftovers

Some of the songs that made it on to the album were leftovers from when Rilo Kiley recorded their acclaimed third album, More Adventurous. Others Lewis wrote in her "not very glamorous" living room. A couple she composed on the tour bus; something she still does when she gets a spot of semi-solitude.

"It's a necessity," she says. "That's your life. You're living on a moving thing, and you have to find moments to get back to what brought you there in the first place."

Jenny Lewis plays The Lowry on Sunday, April 23. 8pm. é10. To buy tickets, call 0870 060 1768 or book online .