Last week I was putting together a Spotify playlist for Valentine's Day, searching my favorite old standards when I came across a version of Ray Noble's The Very Thought of You, first recorded by Noble in 1934, by a young Dutch girl, Lara Louise. I haven't been so enthralled with a voice since I first heard Madeleine Peyroux sing. The Very Thought of You

I couldn't find much info about Ms. Louise but it seems she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from the Netherlands in 2020 and that's where she mainly works. She also sings contemporary folk songs (whatever they are) but has a real way with songs from the "Golden Age", especially for one so young.

I continue to be mesmerized by her sultry reading of Speak Low, written for the 1943 Broadway Show One Touch of Venus, with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by (surprisingly) Ogden Nash. Speak Low

She also handles Bossa Nova very well as evidenced by her version of the Jimmy Van Heusen/Johnny Burke classic, Here's That Rainy Day.Here's That Rainy Day

She and her backup musicians give It Had to Be You something of a Gypsy Jazz treatment. It Had to Be You

She seems to cover a fair amount of French pop songs as well, Sous le ciel de Paris

She only has two CD's available on her website but the quality of everything I've heard is exceptionally high. The spare arrangements of her songs keeps her lovely voice front and center but the backup is varied, interesting and tasteful.