TOBY LIGHTMAN Debut CD garners attention for singer

Her music label is being cautious in marketing the rising star.
By TOM MOON
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
NEW YORK -- In between rounds of stripes and solids at a billiard hall, the diminutive singer and songwriter Toby Lightman is almost giddy as she runs through the shocks she's experienced recently.
Just that morning, Lightman heard herself on the radio for the first time. Her manager called in a frenzy to tell her that contemporary-hits Z100 was spinning "Devils and Angels," the first single from her just-released debut CD, "Little Things."
"I'm like all excited, and I hear it and it was sort of weird," says Lightman, 25, now on the first round of performances to help promote "Little Things."
"I don't know what I thought I'd feel at that moment, but it wasn't what I felt. Maybe I was in shock."
Surreal experiences
Then there was the time, a few months ago, when she was on the phone with a friend while MTV's "Cribs" played in the background.
"It's not my favorite show, it was just on," she seems compelled to say as she connects on a tricky bank shot. Lightman is something of a pool fiend: She has her own cue, emblazoned with the logo of her alma mater, the University of Wisconsin.
"All of the sudden I hear the sitar in the beginning of 'Devils and Angels,' and I'm like, whoa, screaming into the phone. It was only 10 seconds, but that made it almost more trippy, because it was so random."
Lightman says that everything about this project has been that way -- a little surreal.
In the past few months, the performer's defining musical idea -- strummed acoustic guitars and easygoing pop hooks supported by crisply programmed, urban-leaning beats -- has begun to enchant music-industry taste makers. The strident, slyly philosophical relationship song "Devils and Angels" is gaining steam on radio and has been featured on MTV's "You Hear It First" and the all-video M2 channel. In an indication that early interest is spreading to the general public, last month the song was one of the top five downloads on Apple's iTunes site. Also last month, Billboard magazine declared her a "rising star."
Cautious
Lightman, who grew up in the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia, is trying to keep a level head. "From living in New York for the last four years, I've learned that everything can change very quickly."
Her label is similarly cautious. "It's easy to crank the hype machine up and get results for a minute," says Andy Karp, senior vice president at Lava, which has planned Lightman's launch campaign to run all year. "We're not going to do that.
"But I'm cautiously optimistic. ... Beyond all the positioning and marketing stuff we can do, it still comes down to songs and talent, and it's been great seeing how people respond to her."
Lightman credits Peter Zizzo, the songwriter and producer who has collaborated with Avril Lavigne and Vanessa Carlton, with helping her nail down what started as an elusive sound.
"I like soulful rock, like the Black Crowes, but I also like classic pop songs," Lightman explains, adding that with the exception of Suzuki violin lessons when she was 6, her parents never pushed her in any particular musical direction. "I had these songs that weren't really pop or urban, and some people I met with had very strong ideas about which way I should go. Peter just got it: He let the elements coexist."