One of the last Saturday Night Live Episodes to be aired before the writer's strike shut down virtually every scripted show on TV was November 3rd's installment, and it was remarkable arguably for one reason: it's musical guest stole the show. A willowy, shy-looking singer, backed up by a peculiar mix of guitars and banjos, led off with a bouncing, hooky and utterly absorbing love song named "1-2-3-4." Plaintive, spirited, and at once happy and sad, the tune had the audience swaying and clapping wildly.

Feist is hare name, and she's now familiar to just about any of us who have seen her turn in Apple's new iPod Nano commercials. Born in 1976 in Amherst, Nova Scotia, the signer songwriter was born into a home of artists, and responded accordingly. A veteran of the indie-folk scene both here and in Canada, Feist was a longtime member of the alterna-darling band Broken Social Scene, yet still managed to write and record three solo albums before hitting the big time in 2007 with her CD Reminder. Mercifully unpolished and unadorned by layers of tracks-upon-tracks of background and effects, her songs are a tribute to simple signing/songwriting, and we've never needed it more.

Yes, there's the requisite searching and quiet longing in her work that speaks to hope attained and eluded, and yes there are a few misfires in the brew (the live track "Honey, Honey", recorded in Toronto, makes us yearn for a studio version), but Reminder's takeaway of simple joy is worth its weight in gold in these days of musical angst and hand wringing.
Worry tomorrow. Feist is for today.