Tristan Prettyman

Tristan Prettyman is difficult to categorize, even though most everything written about her blames her sound on beach party superhero Jack Johnson. That might have something to do with the fact that they both surf like it was a religious experience and perform their stripped-down acoustic pop with the same desperate need. Thing is, San Diego native Prettyman (who had the misfortune last month of sharing a name with the titular character of the abysmal Tristan & Isolde film) works from a darker place more in synch with her biggest influence, Ani DiFranco. And while she's no Joni Mitchell, every female singer-songwriter's requisite muse rears her head in Prettyman's lyrical execution. Even the role of "female singer-songwriter" is an ineffectual box to tick when summing up Prettyman since, after all, how many other true female singer-songwriters have modeling gigs (for Quicksilver's Roxy line) or perform onstage covers of Britney Spears' boob-twisting classic "Toxic"?