From the California-based digital label Audio Bee comes Sketches, the debut album from Alexa Ray Joel. Joel is a throwback pop-star (i.e., she writes her own songs) with obvious soul and blues influences. Give a listen to the EP, especially Resistance and Song of Yesterday , while you read more about her, courtesy of Rolling Stone.

When singer-songwriter Alex Ray Joel was a little girl, she heard music by three artists at home: 'A lot of Beatles, a lot of Ray Charles, a lot of Beethoven - that was it,' she says. Actually, make that four: 'And my dad, of course,' she adds. 'Just whistling and playing around the house.' The twenty-year-old Joel - who just released her piano-heavy debut EP, Sketches - is the only child of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley. And while she hopes people don't start calling her Piano Girl, she couldn't be more proud of her heritage. 'My dad is always a big influence,' says Joel, naming The Nylon Curtain and The Stranger as favorites. 'I always wrack my brain trying to think of a song of my dad's that I don't like.' [Rolling Stone, 12/28/2006 - 1/11/2007]

Show Alexa Ray some love by RECing her tracks and