Female Singer/Songwriter Thread

[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

[Coffee]

Indigo Girls



Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls are an exceptional singer/songwriter duo. I wish that people would not feel the need to mention their sexual orientation every time, because their music is very good work. I am especially a fan of their older material, from Strange Fire to Swamp Ophelia. I personally own Nomads, Indians, Saints and Rites of Passage, and can recommend both as options for solid acoustic-based music.

[MrWookie]

Here's a post I made in EDF about Eva Cassidy. This is more of her bluesy or jazzy side, but these are some of my favorite tracks.

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One absolute vocal monster who hasn't been mentioned yet is Eva Cassidy. It's a real shame she died young and before she really got the acclaim she deserves. She just kills on some of her recordings:

Wade in the Water -- this is pretty easily the best recording of this song that I've ever heard.

Honeysuckle Rose -- when it was written back in the early days of jazz, this was a fairly quick hot jazz number. I love her down-tempo change of pace.

Stormy Monday -- I can't honestly say that this is the best recording I've heard of this particular song. It's been done so many times by so many legends. However, she still hangs with them.

Time After Time

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I'm also going to add another that wasn't in my EDF post. Her recording of Songbird is a deeply moving track from her pop side. This track is a must-listen.

[Dominic]

Kathleen Edwards, Canadian singer songwriter, born 1978.

Edwards is probably my favorite gal singer songwriter at the moment, as I love her voice, her lyrics, her melodies, hell just about everything. She's also a looker.

Her style is in that alt-country/folk-rock vein that I'm just gaga over.

She has two studio albums, Failer and Back to Me, as well as some EPs and a live recording. I have to thank 2+2er Whiskeytown for turning me on to her, and if I remember correctly, another 2+2er actually knows her!


some videos:

Back To Me

In State

Old Time Sake (live)

[Dominic]

I know about Eva Cassidy because of that other thread, Wook, and I thank you.

[Dominic]

god, the Pretenders first two albums are spectacular. If you listened to them now, for the first time, you'd think it was from some new, hip group from the indie scene. I can't put on that first album without listening straight through, beginning to end.