I Can’t Make You Love Me, by Bonnie Raitt
That’s Why I’m Cryin’, by KoKo Taylor
My One And Only Love, by Rickie Lee Jones
Travelin’ Blues, by Diane Schuur
I Know Now, by June Bronhill and Kieth Mitchell
Well, I guess there are more degrees of intensity than I realized. I’m reminded of the bar scene at the beginning of The Deer Hunter when all the guys are getting so hepped up over a mediocre Four Seasons tune. The atmosphere was certainly intense, but the song was…average. So I’m not going to break anybody’s bubble by slamming their selection. But I do want to thank everyone who responeded because you wouldn’t have done so if you weren’t serious about music and that’s what makes life worth living. Some artists or songs I haven’t heard before but I will definitely check them out ( The names Lucinda and Dar Williams turn up often. Are they sisters?) And some I should have known would be here. eg: Alison Krause - When You Say Nothing At All. (I virtually melt when she sings that song)
And one more song before I go:
Annie Lennox - Why?
Aesiron, thank you for recommending Charlotte Martin (in another thread)
I’m going to try avoiding naming songs already named (even though I came in to recommend I can’t make you love me)
so
Down on Me Janis Joplin
Girl You think you see Carly Simon
Weakness in Me Joan Armatrading
Boy with the Sad Hands Jay Clarkson
Sway Bic Runga
Violnet by Stellar* I think thats the correct spelling Bic’s sister Boh’s band anyway.
Any time. Women with pianos are my most favorite kind. You might also look into Sarah Fimm, Allison Crowe, Regina Spektor, and Sarah Slean. 
Nope, just share a last name.
Yes, they are!
Just not to each other.
I know Regina Spektor. I’ll check out the others!
Sarah Fimm is my most favorite of those, and my most favorite musician period. You (and everyone reading this) owe it to yourself to give her a try most of all, and this link gives you a handy all in one tour of all her songs. My favorite is Virus, but I also love Sets Us Apart, Violet, Let it Run, Scream, Sexual Animals, Bombay Cafe, Be Like Water, Be What You Wanna Be, and practically every song she’s recorded.
I’m playing Be Like Water now - & trying to think of who she sounds like! It will come to me.
I’m curious to hear who you say. I don’t think she really reminds me of anyone.
Kelis - Caught out there
Skunk Anansie - Hedonism
Joni Mitchell - Both sides now
K’s Choice - Not an addict
Abba - The winner takes it all
Anastacia - Out of love
Dixie Chicks/Stevie Nicks - Landslide
Jamelia - Thank you
Both Sides Now … how did I miss that? That also made me think of…
Turn Me On by Norah Jones. She’s a great singer, but for some reason that song (above others) really touches something deep inside me.
What, no blues women here?
Memphis Minnie: Tricks Ain’ Walkin’ No More, Bumblebee Blues, Me & My Chauffeur Blues
Lucille Bogan (AKA Bessie Jackson) also did Tricks Ain’t Walkin’
The late KoKo Taylor: Wang Dang Doodle
“Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday
“Train Song” by Eliza Carthy
“Banks of the Nile” by Sandy Denny (in Fotheringay)
“Our Town” by Iris Dement
“Where Will I Be” by Emmylou Harris
“Medicine Wheel” by Kate Wolf
“A Case of You” by Joni Mitchell
“There’s a Light Beyond These Woods” by Nanci Griffith
Grace Jones, “Let Joy and Innocence Prevail,” from the **Toys **soundtrack.
Caught Out There by Kelis
You Bloody Mtherfing A$$hole by Martha Wainwright
Annie Lenox - can’t think of any song in particular right now but she’s got some great ones
I didn’t get a chance to read the thread, so there may be some repeats:
Belly - Gepetto
Be Your Own Pet - The Kelly Affair
Bjork - Big Time Sensuality
Cowboy Junkies - Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)
Duke Spirit, The - The Step and the Walk
Elastica - Stutter
Fiona Apple - Criminal
Garbage - Why Do You Love Me
Hole - Celebrity Skin
L7 - Pretend We’re Dead
Lawson, Ellie - Gotta Get Up From Here
Luscious Jackson - Naked Eye
Lush - For Love
O’Connor, Sinead - I Want Your (Hands On Me)
Paramore - Crushcrushcrush
Paramore - Decode
Phair, Liz - Supernova
Primitives, The - Crash
Republica - Ready To Go
Romeo Void - Never Say Never
Shiny Toy Guns - On a Rainy Monday
Shiny Toy Guns - You Are The One
Single Gun Theory - From a Million Miles
Sneaker Pimps - Six Underground
Soho - Hippychick
St. Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Yaz - Don’t Go
Yaz - Only You
I suppose these aren’t all BY women. But it’s definitely the female voice that makes them “intense”.
No Yoko?
“Strange Fruit” by Billie Holliday
Second Dusty Springfield on “Son of a Preacher Man” and would also nominate her version of “The Look of Love”
Mahalia Jackson singing “Come Sunday” with Duke Ellington’s band
“The Blues in the Night” by Rosemary Clooney
Dinah Washington, Koko Taylor, and Chrissy Hynde on more songs that I care to mention
I missed two really, really intense songs by female vocalists thinking they were just disposable pop. The first was Kelly Clarkson’s “Walk Away.” I tend to think most artists who gain fame by appearing on TV game shows are bound to be third rate. Then one day I was driving in my care and actually LISTENED to “Walk Away” and I was just blown away by the sheer intensity with which she starts with “I want a man who’ll fight for me, live and die for me, me me MEEEEEE!” and then she’s squeezing that last “ME!” right out of her very soul. Damn.
The other was “Edge of Seventeen” by Stevie Nicks. I like some Fleetwood Mac songs a lot, but I wouldn’t describe their music as intense. Then came another one of those moments when I just happened to really LISTEN to “Edge of Seventeen” and was electrified by the sheer curdled lust of the phrase:
From the moment
When I first laid
Eyes! On! Him!
Good lord, I don’t think anybody, male or female has ever conveyed the feeling of looking at someone and just ACHING to have them the way Nicks did in that song.
Also, you left out Zombie by the Cranberries and Sleeping Satellite by Tasmin Archer, but I forgive you … this time.