TRAINS and boats and planes -- not a track Stacey Kent has recorded yet, but she's certainly getting to know such means of transport very well.

"We do 250 concerts a year," says the 35-year-old jazz singer as she and her husband Jim Tomlinson cruise up the M6 towards Lancashire -- this time in their car.

But, with typical zest, she adds she wouldn't want to be doing anything else.

"I get to travel on the road with my husband," she smiles.

"We're like any couple going out for the day in the car."

Stacey first made her name as a singer in the UK but in the past few years her reputation has spread beyond these shores.

Now she finds herself making monthly trips back to her native US and is due to sing at New York's Carnegie Hall in April.

"There's a ton of work for us in America," she says.

"I'm over there so much now, but the travelling never gets any easier.

"At the moment my time clock's eight hours out and it wreaks havoc on your system."

Good job then that Stacey can always rely on her concerts to pick her up.

Tonight she plays at Westholme School in Blackburn, having just jetted back to England from Seattle this week.

"It's what Humphrey Lyttelton refers to as Doctor Gig," she laughs.

"The buzz we get in concerts is so fantastic.

"That's the joy about making music."

This buzz is reflected in Stacey's new album, The Boy Next Door, which is brimful of her bubbly enthusiasm for her singing heroes.

Tributes to artists like James Taylor, Ray Charles, Paul Simon and Louis Armstrong grace the line-up.

"There's a lot of different artists there," she says. "The line-up isn't supposed to suggest I'm more interested in male singers than females, but we had a lot of fun making that album and I think this is my favourite of everything I've done so far."

With such a hectic schedule, Stacey and Jim have no plans, at the moment, to start a family.

"Neither of us has a very strong pull towards it," she says.

"You can never say never, but it doesn't look that way."

Catch Stacey playing at Westholme School tonight at 7.30pm. Call (01254) 506073 for tickets.