Sarah McLachlan
Ani DiFranco
Tori Amos
Kristen Hersh
I’ve managed to see Sarah and Ani live, and wow.
I’m also currently really digging Sinead Lohan.
Natalie Merchant
Aimee Mann
Ella Fitzgerald
Tracy Chapman
Ani Difranco
Both the Indigo Girls – great harmony
Annie Lennox
P(olly) J Harvey. Great singer and songwriter, fabulous guitarist.
picmr
The troubled and troubling, amused and amusing:
Jill Sobule
Ani DiFranco
Beth Orton
Sarah MacLachlan
Erika Amato
Poe
Sarah McLaughlan
Shawn Colvin
Trisha Yearwood
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Melissa Etheridge.
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned Dar Williams…
My favourite, though, is Lori Carson. Also:
Leah Andreone
Kate Bush
Milla Jovovich (yes, the actress)
Jennifer Kimball (formerly of The Story)
Lisa Loeb
Sinéad Lohan
Tara MacLean
Sinéad O’Connor
Beth Orton
Holly Palmer
Poe
Toyah Wilcox
Suzanne Vega
I’d also love to hear what Anneke van Giersbergen (of The Gathering) and Shirley Manson (of Garbage) can do without the boys in their bands. Ditto my friend Jen Noble (of Grey Eye Glances – plug plug).
As you can tell, I have a large collection of female singer-songwriter’s CDs.
I nominate Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays. Though she didn’t write all of their songs, she wrote enough of them to qualify for me.
Tina Root of Switchblade Symphony-beautiful operettic voice that she can manipulate to make eodnerful sounding songs, and her songs are like poetry…
Tori Amos
Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries.
She’s got that great Irish accent haunting singing voice.
[sorta hijack]Madonna does write her own songs. If anyone read her liner notes, they would know that. She has songwriting credit on over 80% of her songs. She doesn’t actually score anything, but she brings ideas for melodies (and sometimes entire tunes) to her cowriters, and writes ALL of her lyrics. [/sorta hijack]
I nominate Tori Amos. I’ve seen her live twice and it was incredible.
[hijack]About the orgasm on the piano thing - she never knew she did that, until about 1995, when she saw some concert footage of herself onstage. She was utterly shocked, went into therapy and now has herself under control. Mostly.[/hijack]
Kim Deal of Pixies/Breeders/Amps etc.
Nothin’ but no B.S. good old fashioned down and dirty American guitar/bass/drums rock and roll. Kim rocks like nobody’s business. She may not write the purtiest or the smartest songs, but damn it, who said rock and roll was supposed to be smart or purty?
I just used “rock” as a verb for the first time in probably twelve years.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Grace Slick!
MR
I don’t have anybody new to add, but…
Kate Bush
Sheryl Crow
Chrissy Hynde
Harriet Wheeler
Joni Mitchell
and Carole King
One lady I think should be added to the list is Carly Simon.
There have been a lot of talented ladies mentioned, here. However, you should all go out and do forty days penance regarding singers.
A few years ago, a reviewer noted that on her latest album Judy Collins had clearly lost 10% or 15% of her range–leaving her only 10 times as good as any competition.
The following ladies (alphabetically by first name) are truly wonderful:
Carole King
Chrissie Hynde
Grace Slick
Pat Benatar
but how in the world could you folks forget sweet Judy blue-eyes?
In the country-folk-pop vein, you’ve got to love Mary Chapin Carpenter and Matraca Berg. Oh, and Kelly Willis. And Shelby Lynne has done something amazing: evolve from a kick-ass, big-voiced western swing singer to a sultry, nuanced country-soul singer. Wow.
Ani DiFranco