Blunt talk.(Spotlight)

Byline: Rocky Mountain News

* Music fans in the U.S. know British singer/songwriter James Blunt mostly for You're Beautiful. But as pop music writer Mark Brown learned, there's more to the singer than just that hit.

A sense of humor

* He let Weird Al Yankovic re-record his hit single as You're Pitiful (available for free at weirdal.com)

* With lines in his Web site bio such as "The only music he heard growing up was Happy Birthday and Silent Night," you'd think everyone would get the joke. Apparently not. "I wrote it with my landlady (actress/author Carrie Fisher). There are rude bits about her, but she wrote those. What's interesting is many journalists originally read the bio and thought it was serious."

The 'other' singles

Blunt has had five hit singles overseas.

"It's just that we've arrived here a bit later. We'll get the next one out and that'll double the package (of singles) . . . We've had five singles off of this album. We still debated as to which ones would be the singles. I say with confidence that (Back to Bedlam) is an album."

The singles were:You're Beautiful, Wise Men, High, Goodbye My Lover, No Bravery.)

There's new material

How does he manage 90-minute shows with only a 40-minute album? Does he play every song twice? "And much slower, too," he joked. " People come and expect something quite morose and melancholy. It's a very lively show. I have new songs and the audience seems to really enjoy them. Those songs are being recorded whilst we play and they're being whacked up on the Internet. There's not much I can do about that. It's a choice between that or a 40-minute set."

Precocious lad

He knew he would sing "at a very early age. I remember being told that in school. I carried on, singing in restaurants when I was 14 years old."

Army man

He did a stint in the British military, stationed in Kosovo, before he started his career. "A sense of following in family footsteps definitely shapes me. I went to the same school as my dad. I joined the same job as my dad, albeit a different section of the Army . . . But at the same time I knew after I did those things I was going to do my own thing."

INFOBOX

If you go

* When and where: 8 p.m. today, Magness Arena

* Cost: $35 and $42.50

* Information: 303-830-8497 or www.ticketmaster.com.

CAPTION(S):

Photo (3)

Carrie Fisher

CAPTION: James Blunt

CAPTION: James Blunt did a stint in the British military.