Your 5 favorite female vocalists?

[yakkosmurf]

I've got a few.

Sarah Bettens (of K's Choice)
Norah Jones
Sarah Brightman
Karen Carpenter

[dld]

My five least favorites:

1. Urzala Dudziak. This must be a joke right? Worse than Yoko Ono
2. Yoko Ono. thanks goodness for Urzala
3. Yvonne Eliman. one crappy disco hit took this lady nowhere
4. Polly Jean Harvey. Maybe she can write, but I still don't get her singing
5. Madleen Kane, hmmm, tough one here, she's got that euro-trash/disco/decadent look thing going on, but her whisper of a voice doesn't quite do it for me.

[Swish]

Allison Krauss - she has the purest female voice I've ever heard. I can't imagine anyone sounding better than her. She never, ever sounds strained and is never off-pitch.

PJ Harvey - Ok, she doesn't have great pipes, but she has a way of expressing herself like no other female singer I've heard.

k. d. lang - Like Allison, she has perfect pitch and a powerful voice to boot. Roy Orbison, who knew something about singing, said she had "the best pipes in the business", and I can't argue with him. The other thing I like about her is that she uses restraint and is never guilty of vocal excess like the Whitney Houston's and Mariah Carey's of the world, who act like they're on "Star Search" or "American Idol" in most of their songs.

Lucinda Williams - I always lean toward singer/songwriters because I don't think too much credit should be given merely for having a nice voice. Who cares how good you sound if you're singing drivel (that's a shot at Whitney & Mariah)?

Emmylou Harris - she has an amazing catalog of music, much of it as backing vocals for others. Some of her backing on old Gram Parsons tunes are just unbelievable. She's a class act thru and thru.

[Swish]

Allison Krauss - she has the purest female voice I've ever heard. I can't imagine anyone sounding better than her. She never, ever sounds strained and is never off-pitch.

PJ Harvey - Ok, she doesn't have great pipes, but she has a way of expressing herself like no other female singer I've heard.

k. d. lang - Like Allison, she has perfect pitch and a powerful voice to boot. Roy Orbison, who knew something about singing, said she had "the best pipes in the business", and I can't argue with him. The other thing I like about her is that she uses restraint and is never guilty of vocal excess like the Whitney Houston's and Mariah Carey's of the world, who act like they're on "Star Search" or "American Idol" in most of their songs.

Lucinda Williams - I always lean toward singer/songwriters because I don't think too much credit should be given merely for having a nice voice. Who cares how good you sound if you're singing drivel (that's a shot at Whitney & Mariah)?

Emmylou Harris - she has an amazing catalog of music, much of it as backing vocals for others. Some of her backing on old Gram Parsons tunes are just unbelievable. She's a class act thru and thru.

have changed over the years. I still like all 5 of those ladies, but I would have to put Chan Marshall in there, probably Patty Griffin too, and Bjork.

Swish

[Swish]

have changed over the years. I still like all 5 of those ladies, but I would have to put Chan Marshall in there, probably Patty Griffin too, and Bjork.

Swish

(sigh).

Swish

[Davey]

And how could I forget Niko...

The Japanese singer, right? Wasn't she with Cibo Matto? man, I love that band! Viva La Woman! You got to know your chicken!

[Swish]

The Japanese singer, right? Wasn't she with Cibo Matto? man, I love that band! Viva La Woman! You got to know your chicken!

Yes. Yep. Sure. Smartass.

Swish

[jack70]

My five least favorites:

1. Urzala Dudziak. This must be a joke right? Worse than Yoko Ono
2. Yoko Ono. thanks goodness for Urzala
3. Yvonne Eliman. one crappy disco hit took this lady nowhere
4. Polly Jean Harvey. Maybe she can write, but I still don't get her singing
5. Madleen Kane, hmmm, tough one here, she's got that euro-trash/disco/decadent look thing going on, but her whisper of a voice doesn't quite do it for me.

I can't let the Dudziak reference go w/o a response. I'm wondering how much stuff you've heard of her... probably not that much. I consider her a pretty solid jazz vocalist. Not my favorite, but she's better than most jazz vocalists IMO. You may have heard something experimental... using vocals as modern impovisational "scat"... purposely off-the-wall. But unlike Yoko, Urzula can actually sing. She's played with John Amercrombie, Anthony Jackson, Tony Levin, Steve Gadd and many other (good) jazz musicians.

As for other "Bad" singers (least favorites)...you could pick most anyone (female singer) on the pop charts today, and they're all of marginal talent IMO. Madonna sang some song (Stairway to heaven?) accapella last year on NBC I think... it was hideously bad. The trouble is today, we hear (we're fed) so much crap, many people don't know the difference anymore.

I was just doing some digital-cleaning up and found a folder that had 629 alternative (recent) female artists in it! It's rare that anyone new gets heard at all these days.

There are a couple chick singers I'd rate pretty high that are on my vol-3 and vol-7 comps (Eddi Reader, Holly Cole, Jonatha Brooke, Joni Mitchell, Sandy Denny, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Lori Carson, etc.). Lots of others too... Annie Haslam, Linda Lewis, Maddy Prior, Judie Tzuke, Susannah McCorkle, Annisette, etc. Of course, I'd listen to Aimee Mann first because of her music, although she's an above average singer. I just finished a new comp (for the new year) that features a dozen female jazz/blues vocalists. The focus was on the music, but they're all really good (& not that well heard). I'd put 2 or 3 in my top 10 all-time female vocalists. Nobody's mentioned any of em here yet.

[Snowbunny]

One more: Chan Marshall aka Cat Power!

Either you love her or you hate her....