Hot Track Jake Bugg

With such lyrics as "I drink to remember, I smoke to forget," one might think that the 19-year-old British singer-songwriter Jake Bugg is chronicling his own dissolute youth. But says Bugg, "A lot of my songs are just about me growing up and being unleashed in the world." Bugg grew up in a public-housing project in Nottingham, England, and, he says, "I left school at 16, and really had nothing to do except sit around and play my guitar." Bugg's Notting ham accent is so pronounced that it's often difficult to under stand him when he speaks-but his singing is a different mat ter. His folk-style songs made him a sensation in England, where his self-titled debut album was No. 1 on the charts last fall. He's been compared to a wide vari ety of musicians-from the Greenwich Village-era Bob Dylan to Oasis, from early Johnny Cash to Neil Young-but, according to Bugg, he first wanted to write songs after hearing Pete Seeger's Weavers, Jimi Hendrix, and Don McLean. While his music could be considered a throwback to another era, Bugg is currently ultra-fashionable: he's rumored to ! be romantically involved with the model Cara Dde vingne and was a nominee, along with David Bowie and the Arctic Monkeys, for Britain's prestigious Mercury Prize for best album of the year. He admits that it's hard for him to fathom just how well known he's become: "I'm ex cited that I get to travel the world, play music, and meet new V people," he says, "but [basically] I'm just touring on a bus; I go to the gig and get on with it." This month Bugg releases Shangri La, the album he recorded with producer Rick Rubin, and he'll return to the U.S. in January for a full-scale tour. Shangri-La is V named after Rubin's Malibu studio-built in 1976 by Bob Dylan and the Band-where Adele, Kanye West, Eminem, and dozens of other musi cians have recorded. According to Rubin, who's worked with many of those musicians, "Jake's poise and swagger far exceed his years; he seems to channel songs from another world."

LISA RIBINSON