Do you have a favo(u)rite female signer songwriter, that you feel deserves mentioning.

Me it would be, Early Joni Mitchell. There are lots around for sure... :)


http://www.robinsonarchive.com/image...Photograph.jpg

andrea corr :D

There are a few I like (other than the first one, they are in no particular order):

Rosanne Cash
Lucinda Williams
Kris Delmhorst
Mary Gauthier
Carol King
Joan Baez

Joan Baez for sure - nothing more powerful than her accappella version of [not sure on title, but refrain] [ain't no body gonna turn me around, turn me around, turn me around.......gonna build a brand new world'

The in between stuff was powerfully political, but its one of the strongest takes, male or female, on the slave-spiritual(?) genre I have ever heard. This was in the Woodstock (I) era.

- geo Steve

I knew Carol King, and Joan Baez, would come up. And I agree...

I initially thought of three chanteuses
1 the very underrated UK ex-backing singer/songwriter Lindsay Duncan
http://lesleyduncan.tripod.com/
(she wrote the beautiful "Love song" and is on the recording of it by Elton John on his early (1970) third LP "Tumbleweed Connection")
see:- http://www.eltonography.com/songs/love_song.html
I have 2 CDs Of Lesleys
Both are completely wonderful
I have the original vinyl of Earth Mother which IMHO has possibly the finest sleeve artwork I have ever seen
which is probably why I chose to buy it
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
(I now have the CD)
there are clips of all 11 tracks on amazon's site:-
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005Q630/qid=11... Last christmas I added her album "Sing Children Sing" to my collection
and again there are clips of its 11 tracks at:-
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000050IJF/ref=pd... including the first 30 seconds of Love Song
I subscribe to a moderately active Yahoo group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lesleyduncan4scorner/
which just as with our Lightfoot groups often ellicits admissions from new members that they thought they were alone in rhe world in being huge fans of a relatively obscure artist
the group's member list includes both Lindsey herself who has posted messages there and her one time husband and recording producer Jimmy Horrowitz
2.Juice Newton
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/...._AA240_.L.jpg
I was first struck by this lady when I heard her cover of Merrilee Ruch/Rush's hit "Angel of the Morning"which was written I see by Chip Taylor, who is the younger brother of actor Jon Voight, and uncle of Angelina Jolie
there is a clip of Juice's version at:-
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000001B7/sr=8-4... (I just saw that that song was also covered by the Pretenders so I can now add a fourth female favo(u)rite: Chrissie Hynde

3.Stevie Nicks
who breathed new life into Fleetwood Mac back in 1977 when Rumours was released incorporating her and Lindsay Buckinham's sound to great affect
http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
Many superb songs
example clip of "Dreams" at:-
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002KGT/qid=11... I still have a rare copy of the 1973 Buckingham-Nicks album
http://www.slcd.com/images/a/3/a34477.jpg
that served as their "audition" prior to joining up with the then existing Mac group
4.Chrissie Hynde
her cover of "Stand By You "
captivated me last year when I acquired a video of it
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/8...tenders6ak.jpg
hear a clip at:-
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002MQ4/103-55... and I have just though of yet another favourite female
5.Marty Webb
who I saw on the stage in London in the 60's in Anthony Newley's fine musical "Stop The World I Want To Get Off,and later did a bravura solo performance in Lloyd-Webber's 1980 televised musical
"Tell Me On A Sunday"
http://eil.com/newGallery/Marti-Webb...und-236769.jpg
which digression leads me to another fairly unknown singer with a similar name:-
6.Marnie Nixon who? I hear many of you asking
I bet most of you are very familiar with her voice being as how it was her lungs that provided the sound dubbed onto the soundtracks of at least three famous musicals as described on this page:-
http://answerpool.com/groupee/forums...1/r/4331099931
"Marnie Nixon's was the voice used in several films to dub a star who could not sing well enough. The oddest example of her work is where she was hired to sing just one line in a song of Marilyn Monroe's , the rest of which was genuinely sung by Marilyn Monroe It's the line 'These rocks don't lose their shape' in 'Diamonds are a girl's best friend' ( Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ).She also sang as the voice of Deborah Kerr ( The King and I ),Audrey Hepburn (My Fair Lady ) and Natalie Wood (West Side Story ).
and I just discovered
"Marnie Nixon actually gets an appearance in the film version of The Sound of Music – as Sister Sophia"
John Fowles
I love researching the net and hope that lot has not been too tedious
(I purposely selected small and therefore relatively quick loading images

[ July 10, 2006, 13:04: Message edited by: johnfowles ]

Pretty good bunch John, there are some I have never heard of. But for certain Stevie Nicks...

Okay so now I'm going to have to watch for "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" to show up on TV so I can listen for Marnie vs Marilyn.

Marilyn actually had a nice singing voice. I always enjoyed the "Running Wild" number from "Some Like It Hot" and she did "Heat Wave" - nearly stole the show from Ethel Merman who was NOT amused - in "There's No Business Like Show Business." Somewhere or other on Amazon and proably eBay there's a CD with about 20 of the songs she recorded.

Rita Coolidge
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Joan Baez
Kathy Mattea
Jennifer Warnes
Bette Midler
Carole King
Melanie
Juice Newton

Tricia Yearwood has a fab voice
as does
Martina McBride

Rickie Lee Jones
Shawn Colvin

in that order...I like many others, but they have already received mention, and these ladies are my top two anyway...
And Toni Childs 'Union' CD is incredible by anyone's standards, and ranks right up there RLJ and SC

Eva Cassidy - fabulous voice, lost too young.

I'll make the first one the obvious one. ;) She writes her own songs and music (except the occaisional cover version)and 16 out of her 17 #1 hits are hers and hers alone.

Mariah Carey of course. :) *sigh*

Also the other greats:

Carole King
Joni Mitchell
Joan Baez
Maybe Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie
In this decade Alicia Kys
I can't think!! :eek:

I have many other female "singers" I like but they're not songwriters per se.

oh, I forgot, the prolific and very talented Nancy Griffith.
She covered Lightfoot's Ten Degrees on her Other Voices Other Rooms CD, and did a wonderful rendition..bet Gord loved the tempo. ;) She also has many of her own songs out there, on her own CDs and covered by many other artists as well.

Mike, I'm surprised that someone else knows Wendy Waldman. She just played for our concert series and was incredible. I was unfamiliar with her until that time - exceptional guitarist, beautiful voice, great songs, wonderful entertainer and to top it all off, she's a very nice lady.

Kathy Mattea's my favorite.

Interesting choices, all, although B'stone, you've got to get past MC's looks and see that her voice might be fine, but her material is weak.
I tend to be a sucker for a singer/songwriter--I think it's twice as hard to do, but when good, the results are twice as rewarding. So, I'll nominate one forgotten voice--Kate Wolf. Especially in "Safe at Anchor", her music is poetic, personal, and extremely moving.
DQ

AH..Kate Wolf...how could I forget??
Across The Great Divide is another favorite of mine by her... you're right, DQ, she was absolutely amazing.

[ July 13, 2006, 23:01: Message edited by: LSH ]

Don Q. ;
Mariah's material touches my emotions very well and any singer or songwriter that can make chills go up my spine musically,is okay by me. :cool:

Her looks have nothing to do with her music,thats a completely seperate thing. ;) I'm 38,not 18 when it comes to how I perceive things and that goes for music and the oipposite gender. ;)

I recorded that song on my CD that's supposed to come out in September.

Great news Cathy
these tenterhooks I have been sitting on for nigh on 2 years are getting mighty uncomfortable!!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by johnfowles:

the very underrated UK ex-backing singer/songwriter Lindsay Duncan
http://lesleyduncan.tripod.com/
(she wrote the beautiful "Love song" and is on the recording of it by Elton John on his early (1970) third LP "Tumbleweed Connection")
see:- http://www.eltonography.com/songs/love_song.html
I have 2 CDs Of Lesleys
Both are completely wonderful
I have the original vinyl of Earth Mother which IMHO has possibly the finest sleeve artwork I have ever seen
which is probably why I chose to buy it
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
(I now have the CD)
there are clips of all 11 tracks on amazon's site:-
OK I now have a Gord-related reason to harp on about Lesley Duncan and reply to my own posting
I previously gave links to online clips of her albums.
http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/groups/g_53...QJ.vEBDL6FiwAv
I was delighted this morning to receive a digest from the Lesley Duncan fan's Yahoo group that had a link to an archived programme segment of 26 minutes starting with Leslie's solo Love Song in full from some UK live event on local Jersey City FM station WFMU:-
one group posting said
"Interestingly, you can listen to it online via a US radio station
(wfmu) that archives real audio files of some of its playlists:"
http://wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=16088&drop=35
I must investigate those archives maybe some Gord is squirrelled away there somewhere
the listing is at:-
http://wfmu.org/playlists
to try to narrow my search I googled for
"WFMU ARCHIVE GORDON LIGHTFOOT"
which produces no less than 179 results to trawl through
One was:-
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/beat/index.php?m=200606
where I was hugely amused to read concerning Rick Rubin the producer of the widely reviewed recent Johhny Cash posthumous album American V:-
"(4) Owing to his status as Johnny Cash's producer during the last decade of his career, including "American V," Rick Rubin now has a get-out-of-jail-free card for the rest of his natural life. Even if he were to assemble a supergroup of Britney Spears, John Ashcroft and the William Twins (Shatner and Hung) covering the collected works of Wayne Newton, he would be forgiven"
I also hit pay dirt when on:-
http://www.mikehurwitz.com/
I read regarding an album by who else but Mike Hurwitz
"Also, Gordon Lightfoot's Mother of a Miner's Child sounds so intense it seems to be written especially for Hurwitz"
this in turn led me to download and listen to a short clip ( a small 65kb mp3 all of 32 seconds) of his version from:-
http://www.mikehurwitz.com/bunkhouseblues.html
scroll down to the CD track listing
it was great to hear a rare take by another singer of this one of my upper echelon Gordsongs; to me Mike's voice and rendition was very reminiscent of our own "William" (talbot10/Bill Hall)
and I mean that as compliment to my friend Bill
It is simply amazing and unpredictable what one can discover on the internet!!
John Fowles

[ July 20, 2006, 11:45: Message edited by: johnfowles ]

(You got that right),"It is simply amazing and unpredictable what one can discover on the internet!!"

'Mother Of A Miners Child', alway's loved that one, especially the way he begins it. Wouldn't it be nice for everyone to be able to say that about there Mother, especially on Mother's Day, and then again No, on every day of your mother's Life...Jesse.

"La mere est le coeur du foyer." Ask John Fowles he will translate that for those who dont understand...

Mother Of A Miner's Child, ©1972 by Gordon Lightfoot

{She is my flower
And she blooms for the one who loves her best}
The miners stop to watch her as she walks
They know her love is not for sale
She will never fail me 'cause I know
I watched her grow
And the mother of a miner's child
Waits for me beside the kitchen door

She is my light
In this place where the darkness never ends
She'll guide me where the tunnels twist and bend
She's the only one who listens when I tell her
I got less than I can spend
She knows the pace
Oh mother of a miner's child
Wash away the coal dust from my face

When the night shift's done
She'll be waiting by the table when I come
Searching for another dream to chase
Oh mother of a miner's child
I know that you still think about the day
When we'll be movin' on
Remember dear old Daddy and
The promise that I made to carry on

Sometimes I smile
In the cage where the cables softly hum
I'd curse that old straw boss to the bone
But the mother of a miner's child
Is waiting for her paycheck to come home
Come Saturday
And he is just a miner's boy
I hope that he will find a better way

She is my flower
And she blooms for the one who loves her best
The miners stop to watch her as she walks
They know her love is not for sale
She will never fail me 'cause I know
I watched her grow
And the mother of a miner's child
Waits for me beside the kitchen door

[ July 20, 2006, 13:16: Message edited by: Jesse -Joe ]

ER UMM THE MOTHER IS THE HEART OF THE FOYER?? IS THAT THE PORCH OR VESTIBULE JE NE COMPRIS,MAIS JE SUIS TRES DESOLLE A L'ADMITTER
JEAN

[ July 21, 2006, 09:31: Message edited by: johnfowles ]

Yes - you know Mother of a Miner's Child is in my top drawer list of Gord's as well. Amazing how he can write of a walk of of life as though he's been in the moccassin's for many a mile, but in fact never has (in this case to). Its uncanny.

I love that song. It also is thought provoking (as I interpret the song)of how a young man, upon the loss of his father (and the provider) life demands of the son that he "carry on" as provider, and is faced with a dillemna of how to improve his outlooks in career.

College, learning a new trade, what have you, must seem unreachable to a young man who carries the weight of the world on young shoulders. Lightfoot seems to understand this so well and convey it even better.

I have never read much about Lightfoot's father, who I understand owned a Laundromat, and no doubt offerred the business to GL as a young man, one who had a strong life-path allready chosen. Different economic scale, I can only assume in that case.

To my knowledge, he only wrote of his dad in one song - "Restless" on WFY. I'll wager he was an awfully good man, though. And his mother - still attends home-town concerts as of last report- amazing ! Must be one proud mother.

thats my two bits geo Steve

Steve - Gord's mum passed away in May 1998 but was always at the Massey shows before that with a proud son beaming while introducing her from the stage...She was ill and didn't attend the 1998 Massey shows.