The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #87398 Message #1631929
Posted By: sharyn
21-Dec-05 - 12:47 AM
Thread Name: Where does YOUR singing style come from?
Subject: RE: Where does YOUR singing style come from?
Big and early influences for me were Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell recordings -- I learned everything off those first four albums by each of them, but I also listened to Odetta. Next big discoveries after that were Ewan MacColl, Jean Redpath, Sara Grey. After I absorbed as much as I could from them, I sang along with Lizzie Higgins and Jeannie Robertson a lot. I learned Irish-style ornamentation from Dick Gaughan recordings and a local singer named Marla Fibish who was in a San Francisco band called Out of the Rain. I've also listened a lot to Sweet Honey in the Rock for African-American styles, as well as a lot of recordings of work songs -- I was quite fond of Afro-American Songs from Texas Prisons. And lately I've gotten quite fond of Chris Smither and Gillian Welch. I always sing along with whoever I'm listening to and learn songs off albums I like, so all of these singers have influenced my singing style: phrasing, pronunciation, ornamentation, tempo. I also spent a number of years in a very fine church choir singing a lot of early music and doing a lot of Gregorian chanting.