Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

[MrWookie]

Porter,

These are two women high on my list, although I have them in my jazz category. Admittedly, Eva Cassidy does branch into some modern songs, but my favorites are her jazz and blues tracks.

[daveT]

Excellent start, Kimbell.

I love Bjork. The only thing that I could add is that you can't understand her from just one song. You need to listen to her albums straight through and absorb the experience. I am amazed that she is as popular as she is with so little air play. She sold her persona well and let her music speak for herself.

[Kimbell175113]

zomg, I have heard very little of these first few. Time to get crackin' on YouTube.

[Kimbell175113]

[ QUOTE ]
Excellent start, Kimbell.

I love Bjork. The only thing that I could add is that you can't understand her from just one song. You need to listen to her albums straight through and absorb the experience. I am amazed that she is as popular as she is with so little air play. She sold her persona well and let her music speak for herself.

[/ QUOTE ]
Absolutely. I tried to shy away from the truly weird songs in my post, trying not to scare people, but it's true that you don't really know one until you know them all. "Pagan Poetry" only is as powerful as it is when it happens in its place on Vespertine, when it has that set-up of the songs before it. But when it does, wow.

[OrigamiSensei]

I am so in love with her voice and songwriting talent (sorry if the image hotlink doesn't work):

Chrissy Hynde of the Pretenders combines the ability to wrench your soul with the swaggering braggadocio of a young street tough. Blasting onto the scene in the late seventies The Pretenders were seeking to erase the bad taste in our mouths from a decade of "Torn Between Two Lovers" and "Billy Don't be a Hero", not to mention the horrors being perpetrated in discos across the globe. Moving seamlessly from ferocious cynicism in songs like "Tattooed Love Boys" and "The Adultress" to showing a softer side in songs like "Talk of the Town" and "Birds of Paradise" her songwriting is intensely emotional, personal and uncompromising. Meanwhile, she does not have a diva's voice but she knows precisely what her voice will do. Perhaps a tad limited in range but her voice is pure and sweet; from studio albums to concerts to TV appearances I have never heard her miss a note.

Unfortunately the deaths of Pete Farndon and Jim Honeyman-Scott extinguished a brilliance from the first two Pretenders albums that will never be captured again but the talent of Chrissy Hynde endures.

[LeapFrog]

I must first disclose that I have zero musical talent/knowledge

Patricia Barber Jazz Singer/Songwriter/Pianist

A thinking mans Diana Krall if you will. Not that I dislike DK (The Girl in the Other Room is a great album) but I consider PB a cut above.

Supposedly she is quite the jazz pianist -- I can't comment on that (other then it sounds good to me), but I consider her lyrics to be her strong suit (see the excerpt from clues below).

I like most of her albums but Mythologies is probably my favorite. I am a bit of a headphone freak and will say that the production values on her albums seem to be pretty high.

I think she plays a weekly gig at the Green Mill in Chicago.

Some links to songs and webpages

http://www.patriciabarber.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Barber

Blackbird
http://www.seeqpod.com/music/?q=sund...ng+coming+down

Some Youtube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJcozquLttY

Presumably showcasing her ivory skillz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2JmkaBBwEc

Excerpt from Clues

the moment slips by in silence
like dying in your sleep
peripheral vision could save you if the movement weren’t so fleet
like the burning smell of flesh before the brain records the heat
the flash of an explosion the second before defeat

if truth could sound a warning instead of stealing in the night
if blunder would blaze like neon or a christmas tree with lights
if words spoken in certain sequence were outlined in black and white
would these clues forecast disaster within the ordinary life

[hanimal]

I saw Bjork for the first time live this summer at Rock En Seine and the show was awesome. She played Joga.
Her set was unbelievably elaborate and with crazy lights, costumed backup singers/instrumentalists, confetti, and that crazy computer/noisemaker thing, I felt like I was on acid. A good thing.

[hanimal]

(holy crap this is my longest post ever, sorry. just click the links if you don't want to bother).

Yeah, I too tend to gravitate towards female singer/songwriters.

Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple is my favorite artist.
I started listening to her in 2005 when her latest album, Extraordinary Machine, leaked in its bootleg form.
I had never really paid any attention to her, just knew that she had a hit with her song Criminal in the late 90s and had a notorious reputation.
So I thought she was just another of the recycled, formulaic, eye candy pop princesses that we have been subjected to in our generation.

Boy was I wrong.
I really can't remember why or how I heard the song Extraordinary Machine. I probably saw an article about her album controversy online. Basically the album was finished around 2003 but supposedly Sony didn't like it so it got shelved. The bootleg leaked in 2005, people started a "Free Fiona" campaign and the rest is history.
So anyways, I wish I could remember; it's one of those things where if I could go back and pinpoint it, I'd be able to say "aha! that's how it all started."

Well I do remember seeing her perform the song live on the Today Show shortly after I heard it online. I didn't expect this from someone who I had the preconceived notion of being a female pop singer. The song had a lilting, jazz-drenched vibe.

I fell in love with the odd, quirky rhythm, the melody, unique phrasing and that smokey, dark amber voice.

Then I listened to the lyrics. I realized these are not the lyrics of a good looking girl who some corporation was using to make big bucks. These lyrics were actually written by herself, not by a team of writers and producers.

I downloaded the bootleg Extraordinary Machine and fell in love with it. Jon Brion produced it and he is a genius. The two of them together is magic. There is such great production, orchestration and interesting arrangements on her albums. (The studio release is not nearly as good, but mainly aesthetically, the lyrics are the same just the production is more "hip" and cleaned up by another producer, IMO the Jon Brion version is far, far superior.) Definitely not your pop singer next door.

But she's still catchy as hell. Paper Bag

What I love about Fiona, as I mentioned, is her penchant for unsual melodies, rhythms, and arrangements. What really sets her apart I think is her unique phrasing; where she starts and stops her lyrics and rhymes, her songs are pure poetry.
And that smokey voice!

So I worked my way backwards and got her second album, When The Pawn. I would say something but this review on Metacritic says exactly what I feel: "People think Apple came into her own with Extraordinary Machine, but When the Pawn... is her masterpiece. As a piano frontwoman, she took the risk of not making the piano dominate in what came out to be a very percussion intensive album. The arrangements are lush and fully realized. Where a simple electric guitar would suffice, the songs use strings and horns to create very meaty soundscapes. The lyrics are simply astounding: it's amazing how she doesn't let the confines of rhythm and rhyme interfere with perfect lyrical expression. And that voice: words can't describe. Apple provides a wide range of vocal performances, from lovingly tender to genuinely pissed off to frightenly venerable. This album only gets better with each listen."
I absolutely fell in love with When The Pawn and it is my most listened to on my iPod. (The drumming particularly stands out on a genre not known for cutting edge drumming or anything.)

I really like Fiona because she takes her craft seriously and writes really great songs. You can tell she has principles because I read that basically she was willing to just shelve the last album and walk away from her music career (she was writing a resume) since her album was not being released the way she wanted. She has said something like she will never compromise her music to appease higher-ups desires of a "hit single."

I saw her live this summer with Nickel Creek and I will say she's great live and you can tell she brings it 100%. (I know some people will think she's a little emo or bitchy or whatever, but she is what she is. She doesn't really do the happy thing a lot. I think she gets over the madness through these songs. Her songs are good for a certain mood.)

Great song, probably my favorite off the first album. Written by an 18 year old, pretty good I think and great production.


Criminal bluegrass style, from the show I saw!

Fast As You Can acoustic (could be my favorite Fiona song of all time on any given day)

I Know acoustic. One of the most heartaching songs I've ever heard.

I love this http://youtube.com/watch?v=BmSg5vMFj7o

[Dominic]

nice post, Hanimal...i'm a big fan, too.

[Hey_Porter]

I'll be the first (of what I assume will be many votes in support) to mention Eva Cassidy. Purely a singer (as far as I know), her voice is simply haunting and beautiful. I'm usually a big lyrics guy. Most songs I love I gravitate towards because of the lyrics. If I like a song because of it's melody, it's the melody of the song and not necessarily the singers voice (in fact, I can't think of any examples). With Eva, all the love is in the voice.
Fields of Gold
Over the Rainbow

I'm also a huge fan of Diana Krall. I'm not doing that great at naming singers/songwriters, as I'm pretty sure Diana doesn't write much of her own stuff (at least on her older recordings). I played piano forever and everything I did was classical. When I saw Diana play jazz piano, god, ten years ago when I was in high school, it made me extremely jealous and pissed that my teachers never opened the door to jazz. Specifically, this song. That got me to listen to her recordings, and her vocals just blow me away. Not gonna lie, most of it is because I think her voice is sexy as hell. Plus, her version of Joni Mitchell's A Case of You is defintely in my top ten songs to listen to.

If we were focusing on songwriting and not singing (or singing/songwriting), Joni Mitchell would be number one, but while I can stand her voice, it isn't my fav.