MySpace has proven itself a great place to meet perverts and catch up with people you hated in high school, but its value as a music-marketing tool remains largely up in the air.

Southern California singer/songwriter Colbie Caillat will criss-cross the US this fall to support her July debut, "CoCo."

The best way for a newcomer to quickly make a dent on the charts is to drop a few tunes that have irresistible refrains or choruses.

The song is like a virus, easily the most infectious single of the summer. It starts with a simple acoustic chord, falls into a friendly shufflebeat, then perambulates into the laid-back folksy vocals of its composer, Colbie Caillat.

Caillat will get things rolling with a trio of California shows: September 13 at Adventure Hornblower Yacht in San Diego, September 14 at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana and September 15 at The Fillmore in San Francisco.

Colbie Caillat fans -- mostly female and 20something -- crammed themselves into the Showbox at the Market Tuesday night for the Malibu, Calif., singer-songwriter's Seattle debut.

The much-hyped album release battle between 50 Cent and Kanye West begins today, but the early clubhouse leader is an acoustic folk singer who got her break on MySpace. Take that, yo!

Last year, Colbie Caillat was working at a tanning salon and singing in small clubs. Today, the dusky-voiced, 22-year-old singer-songwriter from Malibu, Calif., is a bona fide pop star.

If you haven't heard of Colbie Caillat yet, you will soon enough as the young star's meteoric rise pushes her off MySpace and into the mainstream.

A year ago, the now 22-year-old Caillat (pronounced "kah-LAY") was working at the front desk of a Malibu, Calif., tanning salon checking customers in and out, and, in her spare time, writing songs with singer-songwriter pal Jason Reeves.

Universal Republic has had a good year, buoyed by two drastically different female artists: Amy Winehouse and Colbie Caillat, whose "Bubbly" is like the sickeningly saccharine, Disney-fied answer to Winehouse's "Rehab."

Universal Republic Records’ newcomer Colbie Caillat, who previously reigned as the #1 unsigned artist on myspace, has been officially anointed by the growing legion of music fans flocking ...

Yea! So that very smooth talent Colbie Caillat (whom I wrote about months ago) was FINALLY signed by Universal Republic and releases her first album this Tuesday, July 17.

This little song has had a long path to the upper reaches of the pop singles chart in the US. Colbie Caillat introduced it to MySpace users in 2006 where "Bubbly" quickly became a favorite of songs by unsigned artists.

Take note of a hot new (acoustic) talent out of California — Colbie Caillat, a breath of fresh air. No hype, no overproduced sound — just a girl with a guitar who feels blessed to do what she loves.