She may be best known as the plump, supposedly plain, Irish teenager in the 1995 movie Circle of Friends. But Minnie Driver has played everything from a Russian country-western singer in the Bond film GoldenEye to a heart-transplant patient in the sentimental romantic comedy Return to Me. Now, Minnie Driver is starring onstage as – herself. VOA's Rebecca Ward explains.

Minnie Driver, actress

Minnie Driver is currently on tour promoting her new album Seastories and dropped by Voice of America studios to talk about the new CD.

"I live by the ocean and I write by the ocean, all my stories, basically I find inspiration by the ocean,” she says. “So, that's really where it came from, it's not more complicated than that. "

This is actually Driver's second CD - a follow-up to her 2004 debut Everything I've Got in My Pocket.

Minnie Driver (center), is currently on tour promoting her new album 'Seastories'

Reviews for Driver's new CD have been mostly kind, with USA Today comparing her favorably to rocker Chrissie Hynde. But in naming her main influences, the artists are overwhelming male.

She mentions, "Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills and Nash. Kind of folk, Americana singers. Some Woodie Guthrie, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash." 

Although Driver is currently singing her way across the United States, she has not given up her day job as an actor - and continues her role in the FX networks' television show - The Riches.

"I'm contracted to do a TV show, so they tell me when I have to go to work on that. And then I have to fit everything else around it. I couldn't make movies this year because I was touring with the record. So, I do whatever it is I'm not doing, if you see what I mean."

Well, whatever she is doing, she seems to be doing it right.