Her songs explore everything from the effects of liquor (“When I Drink”) to competition with other women (“My Rival” and “All His Exes”). “They’ve come to be the songs that women really love,” she says.

“I like to tell stories. I also write from the point of view of the character. Sometimes that character is a part of myself or someone that I’ve observed. Sometimes it’s the character I wish I was brave enough to be.”

The “character” that is Sylvie Lewis has already had an exciting life. At age 15, she performed in a jazz trio in her native London and was picked by legendary Beatles producer George Martin to record a demo. “Of course I knew who he was, but I wasn’t as star-struck then as I am now,” she admits, adding that Martin is a “true gentleman” who still helps her with song critiques.

Sylvie left home at 18, attended Boston’s prestigious Berklee School of Music where she studied composition, lived for a while in Africa, and came to Los Angeles in 1999 where she became a regular at that songwriters’ haven, the Hotel Café. She pieced together an EP of her early songs, entitled Beautiful Mess, and although she now characterizes it as a sort of rough draft, “the seeds of where I came from,” the recording attracted the attention of the Los Angeles-based Cheap Lullaby Records, who signed Sylvie in 2001.

You’ll find something different from the usual lyric sheet inside Tangos and Tantrums - diary-like liner notes by Sylvie herself. “I want to give people who buy the CD something extra-all these little anecdotes and stories.” (For the lyrics, see her web site, www.sylvielewis.com).

The something extra includes one liner note entry for the song “Valentine’s Day” that is, ahem, a bit risqué. Let’s just say that it involves a candle - and famous raunchy writer Henry Miller.

Laughing, Sylvie comments: “There’s certain people who played on the album who are not giving the album to their parents! I’ve been known to be a little risqué on stage. But I don’t do things just for shock value.”

Shocking or not, audiences will be able to enjoy Sylvie Lewis’s unique viewpoints as she begins a national tour this month.