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Kitchell's 'Words' Get an Encouraging Reception Sonya Kitchell is just 17, but her voice and lyrics are drawing comparisons to Joni Mitchell and Norah Jones. Rolling Stone says her music belies her age. Kitchell tells Howard Berkes how a young woman from Massachusetts "gets" the blues.

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Kitchell's 'Words' Get an Encouraging Reception

Heard on All Things Considered

Kitchell's 'Words' Get an Encouraging Reception

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Two From 'Words'

'Train'

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'Tinted Glass'

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Sonya Kitchell performs a song from her new album, just for NPR: Adriano Fagundes hide caption

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Adriano Fagundes

Sonya Kitchell performs a song from her new album, just for NPR:

Adriano Fagundes

'Too Beautiful'

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At 17, Sonya Kitchell has appeared on Letterman, performed with Herbie Hancock and she has her own CD, Words Came Back to Me. And she wrote every song on the album, a blend of blues, jazz, folk and pop.

Reviewers, comparing her to Joni Mitchell and Norah Jones, marvel at her mature sound. But Kitchell has been at this business for longer than you might think. She wrote her first song when she was 12 years old.

She chats with Howard Berkes about songwriting, her musical roots and how a teenager from rural Massachusetts "gets" the blues.