by SHANE SINNOTT

Technology, it seems, can really bring out the hyperbole. Over the last few years, we’ve heard constant nattering on various revolutions, restructurings and visions of gasping industries laid waste at the hands of the empowered individual. The power is usually attributed to broadband Internet access, and the story goes that once everyone can broadcast their artistic output to the world, we will be able to declare the mammoth entertainment corporations null and void. There are particular hopes with the music industry, going back at least to 1991 when Kurt Cobain started to say things about the record industry being staffed by dinosaurs and how we’d soon be moving into their homes. While nothing so dramatic has transpired, it’s nice to occasionally see hints that these changes are at least theoretically possible. So it is with Kate Walsh, the 23-year-old from Brighton, England, whose home-recorded album of acoustic folk is currently the #1 downloaded record at the iTunes music store, beating out the Kaiser Chiefs and Take That.

The album, called Tim’s House in honour of the friend’s home where she recorded it, has no formal industry backing. She put songs on her MySpace page and was eventually able to get the iTunes music store to sell it after setting up her own label (the insufferably named Blueberry Pie). The blogosphere did what it does, and the next thing you know, Ms. Walsh is selling 6,000 albums over a weekend, and saying things like, “I don’t actually have an iPod yet” to the London Evening Standard.

The music isn’t the most original in the world—think Sarah McLachlan, meaning quiet acoustic ballads with a wavering, hyper-feminine voice—but it’s hard not to root for her. Let’s hope that the inevitable label-signing and long tour doesn’t ruin it. To get an idea of Walsh’s sound, you can download a track called “No Time to Look,” which didn’t make the final album, here. If you want to hear more, you’ll have to head over to itunes.com and pony up.

And I saw her standing there… ssinnott@gmail.com