Who: Singer/Songwriter

House: Kirkland

Hometown: Boston, though she has lived in Colorado, Florida, and Kentucky.

Current residence: Somerville, Mass.

Spotlight: A Harvard girl with a guitar hasn’t been this original since Tracy Chapman stumbled out of Boston with “Fast Car.” Mieka Pauley has been compared to Sarah McLachlan, Aretha Franklin, and more. Her latest CD, a five song EP released in April, has been called everything from “smokey and soulful” to having “top of the pop-rock charts written all over it” to “soulful, street-worn folk-pop” as well as every other possible permutation of pop, rock, folk and soul. According to the Cornerstone Player, she is cooler than Michelle Branch, a harder rocker than Vanessa Carlton, and not skanky like Christina Aguilera. Did we mention hotter than all three?

Friends: She’s played with the likes of Eric Clapton, Wyclef Jean, and John Legend, but her most supportive fellow musicians have been Edwin McCain and Citizen Cope. She’s now on the road, opening for McCain.

Guilty Pleasures: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

Dream Car: A tour bus driven by someone else.

Politics: Democrat with a penchant for Green.

Net Worth: “I was living in Cambridge, but as I’m a musician, and my boyfriend is a stand-up comic, we didn’t have the funds to stay. Talk to us in a year, maybe we’ll be in Medford.”

In her own words: “If I didn’t have music, I have no idea what I would be doing. I studied biological anthropology at school, so maybe I’d be in Borneo living with orangutans.”