Mayer Hawthorne & The County @ King Tut's, 24 Oct

Growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Mayer Hawthorne was soon introduced to neighbouring Detroit’s rich musical heritage thanks to his father playing its rich soul and jazz output on childhood car journeys.

The singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist has certainly built on these early musical foundations, though now counts his biggest inspirations as Smokey Robinson and Curtis Mayfield.

Though all too easy to label Hawthorne’s sound ‘retro’, respect is definitely due to an artist that writes all his own songs and plays all his own instruments, a fact that definitely didn’t go amiss when Stone's Throw label boss Peanut Butter Wolf first heard him.

Impressed by the 29-year-old suburban white kid’s heartfelt sentiments, he signed him up based only on two songs, something he’d not done with any other Stone's Throw artist.

Since the tender-falsetto-meets-breakbeat of first release ‘Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out’, the plaudits have snowballed, with recent debut album ‘A Strange Arrangement’ gaining particular acclaim. Time to discover what all the fuss is about.