It seems I'm only one of millions of people who were quite impressed by the female guitarist in Carrie Underwood's band who played blistering solos during the country singer's Grammy performance last

It seems I'm only one of millions of people who were quite impressed by the female guitarist in Carrie Underwood's band who played blistering solos during the country singer's Grammy performance last night. The Internet is apparently burning up with people asking "Who was that smoking guitarist?!" And the answer has been found... it's a 23-year-old Australian native who goes by the name Orianthi.

Several time Underwood wandered over beside Orianthi during the song, perhaps to give Orianthi some TV time... she certainly deserved it. Orianthi may be new to most viewers, but the music industry is already well aware of the young guitar phenom: Her MySpace page (www.myspace.com/orianthi) says she moved to L.A. after signing a deal with a division of Geffen Records.

And her guitar-playing colleagues, and idols, have known about Orianthi for much longer: she says that the first support show she played was for Steve Vai (she was 15), and she got to jam with Carlos Santana at 18 when he played in her hometown of Adelaide, Australia.

What does Santana think of Orianthi's ability? Her MySpace page prominently features a quote from him: "If I was going to pass the baton to somebody, she would be my first choice."

Orianthi also has a previous album, Violet Journey (use this link to order from Amazon.com), that's available apparently as an import (and may be more widely available now). There are also some Orianthi MP3s available for sale at the Orianthi fan site, www.orianthi.net/ .

We can expect to hear a lot more from Orianthi in the months to come.

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