Musically inspired Confessions
I am, this week, feeling rather pleased with myself and when this happens I tend to feel rather musical too. I must say that I do have a musical dark secret, I am unable to resist female singer songwriters! I guess I have had this addiction since I heard Kate Bush and then gravitated towards Tori Amos and Joan Osbourne in the 1990's, in the later 1990's I was passionate about Aimee Mann. Now all three of these woman started to, in my opinion decline in their songwriting powers, Tori having peaked for me on the 'little Earthquakes' and 'Under the Pink' albums. So, I had to find new females to keep my addiction alive and to deliver great music. And I still of the opinion that when a woman makes great music it is the finest music around as music to me is very much an emotional experience, and to my mind woman excel at being able to deliver multi-layed emotional music that can range from essentially very happy to very melancholy and everything in between. That's why I love, as Joan osbourne once said, 'oh no, another Chick with a guitar'. In the new millenium, there have been 4 singer songwriters that have stood out for me as representing all that is great about female musicians and all are rather quirky in their own personal style and obviously I have seen them all, mainly in Nottingham at the Rescue Rooms, my second fav venue, or the Maze, my all time favourite venue and rock city, where, to be fair, its pretty dark and the beers warm and awful, and not cheap. So I will list them one to four in no certain order;
PJ HARVEY
Who's been around for a while like Tori Amos, but just keeps getting better and better and I can only assume this is her west country blood. My wife doesn't really like Pj Harvey, but I saw her at Rock City and she was a little 5ft 3in woman in a flowery red dress accompanied with Flourescent Yellow High heels, which to me is true style and she does possess a unique and playful dress style. and boy, was she loud.
Thea Gilmore
To me this girl was an absolute revelation when I first heard her song, Avalanche. I paid £10 to see her at the Maze pub in nottingham and its almost the nest tenner I ever spent as part of the goosefayre music festival, which may be dead now. She has never received the mainstream fame she deserves. Her talent though is critically acclaimed and I think I have seen this girl 4 times live and she gets better, it's been three years since I last saw her play, when she was 7 months pregnant and still performing. This first song is a cover of her boyfriends song;
and this is my favourite Thea Gilmore track from the avalanche album; Razor Valentine. Avalanche is one of those rare albums where there isnt a poor track on it.
LAURA VEIRS
Some would argue that she is country sounding and its true but Laura Veirs has been classed as 'americana', I have no idea what this means. I think she defies classification by just being a free spirit, musically capable of visiting almost any sound. And what I love about her is that she used to, not sure if she does now, advertise herself for Guitar lessons on her website, providing you could make it to seattle!
REGINA SPECKTOR
I have to confess I don't own any regina spektor albums because I wasn't the terrible spendthrift when I discovered her music for myself, but I do have a lovely You tube collection. I am not sure why I love her music so much. I think its her distinct voice and the fact she palys piano, which makes her a Tori Amos type figure for me which usually works, musically. She seems to have so much fun with her music that you cannot really not be uplifted by her stuff. She is probably the happiest musician I like.
And I would say the theme is that women can produce the greatest music, to me. And the more different they are from the mainstream, and stay true to their personality, sound and quirkiness then they can be most amazing and will probably seduce me musically.
PJ HARVEY
Who's been around for a while like Tori Amos, but just keeps getting better and better and I can only assume this is her west country blood. My wife doesn't really like Pj Harvey, but I saw her at Rock City and she was a little 5ft 3in woman in a flowery red dress accompanied with Flourescent Yellow High heels, which to me is true style and she does possess a unique and playful dress style. and boy, was she loud.
Thea Gilmore
To me this girl was an absolute revelation when I first heard her song, Avalanche. I paid £10 to see her at the Maze pub in nottingham and its almost the nest tenner I ever spent as part of the goosefayre music festival, which may be dead now. She has never received the mainstream fame she deserves. Her talent though is critically acclaimed and I think I have seen this girl 4 times live and she gets better, it's been three years since I last saw her play, when she was 7 months pregnant and still performing. This first song is a cover of her boyfriends song;
and this is my favourite Thea Gilmore track from the avalanche album; Razor Valentine. Avalanche is one of those rare albums where there isnt a poor track on it.
LAURA VEIRS
Some would argue that she is country sounding and its true but Laura Veirs has been classed as 'americana', I have no idea what this means. I think she defies classification by just being a free spirit, musically capable of visiting almost any sound. And what I love about her is that she used to, not sure if she does now, advertise herself for Guitar lessons on her website, providing you could make it to seattle!
REGINA SPECKTOR
I have to confess I don't own any regina spektor albums because I wasn't the terrible spendthrift when I discovered her music for myself, but I do have a lovely You tube collection. I am not sure why I love her music so much. I think its her distinct voice and the fact she palys piano, which makes her a Tori Amos type figure for me which usually works, musically. She seems to have so much fun with her music that you cannot really not be uplifted by her stuff. She is probably the happiest musician I like.
And I would say the theme is that women can produce the greatest music, to me. And the more different they are from the mainstream, and stay true to their personality, sound and quirkiness then they can be most amazing and will probably seduce me musically.
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