UK singer/songwriter Sandi Thom [ tickets ] will play several North American dates this summer in anticipation of her debut album, "Smile... It Confuses People," hitting these shores.

The singer's debut entered the UK charts at No. 1 following its early June release, driven in part by the album's No. 1 UK single, "I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)."

Thom will kick off her outing July 26 in San Francisco, the first of 13 dates sprinkled throughout the continent.

"Smile" and its hit single are the 24-year-old singer's first recorded output, but the Banff, Scotland native has been performing for most of her life, according to her online bio.

"I started writing songs when I was 11 or 12," Thom said in her bio. "I wanted to find a way to express my feelings about the changing circumstances in my life. I've got recordings of some of them and the lyrics are all to do with that subject. Titles like 'Where Do I Belong?' and that sort of thing."

After a singing teacher in Aberdeen suggested she should apply for a place at the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts, Thom formed the band that appears on her album and backs her during live performances.

"That was when I started writing for the band," she said. "And that's an entirely different thing from me just sitting in a room with a guitar singing tales of woe. I've worked with them for six years and we have got a tremendous rapport. They are more than my band. They are my support unit."