Not much of what Tori Amos is doing on her current tour is really new. Given, she has a new record, Strange Little Girls (Atlantic), but all the songs are covers. None of them are new. She's touring alone, but Tori's done that before, too. It's not like she hasn't toured in years either. She's made it out on the road rather regularly the last few years in support of her previous record, from the choirgirl hotel.

So why, then, is Tori able to sell out show after show, from one city to the next?

The answer lies not so much is what Tori does, but how she does it. Sure, the songs are mostly "old," but she's taken each one and twisted it and made them uniquely hers. Where each of these songs had been sung from a male perspective, Tori has seized them and forced us to look at the female side of the songs; that side was most likely hidden or neglected and we probably didn't want to see anyway. Still, are these revelations, in and of themselves, enough to fill concert halls?

Possibly, but again, it's how Tori does it all - how she performs - that makes her rare. Whether alone or surrounded by a full band, Tori Amos connects with her audience in a way that few artists are able to. That's what makes her special. Mick Jagger and Eddie Vedder are able to pull you in with charisma. Bono, somehow, is able to speak for the masses. Gwen Stefani wants to have fun. They're all incredible performers that can command the stage and have that certain presence. Tori Amos has some of those qualities, too, but what she is able to do that most others are not is to reach right into your soul and somehow make it feel like she's singing to you. She's touching you. She knows you.

Equally important, she makes you feel like she wants you to know her.

When we saw her again for the first of her three sold-out shows in Los Angeles, it was the same Tori we've seen before. It doesn't get old. After over an hour and forty-five minutes of passion, including two encores, she continues to amaze. From the opener, her cover of Eminem's "'97 Bonnie and Clyde," to the last strains of her cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide," Tori gripped the fans and drizzled emotion all over them. It's that passion that makes it so powerful - each time she performs a song, it's a little different, a tad more personal, a bit more yours.

Each of these reinterpretations adds new life to an already vivid landscape. Two of her classics she played, "Caught A Light Sneeze" and "Crucify," while Tori live standards, seemed just a little different. The "personalization" isn't lost on her fans, either. They notice the lyrical changes and the subtle differences that Tori throws in.

That's how you sell out three nights in LA and countless others around the world.

Tori is known for being equally personal when she's not on stage. When we spoke to her, it was obvious that while she may have never met you before and she may never meet you again, these few precious moments are yours, completely. Tori was engaging, thoughtful and deliberate - she's not regurgitating the same old answers to questions she's heard before; she's considering them as though it was the first time she's been asked and she wants to make sure you get where she's coming from.