Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 - 2011)

Subject: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 – 2011)
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 11:56 AM

Singer Phoebe Snow has died.

Phoebe Snow,' Poetry Man' Singer, Dies at 60

"Phoebe Snow, a bluesy singer, guitarist and songwriter who had a defining hit of the 1970s with "Poetry Man" but then largely dropped out of the spotlight to care for her disabled daughter, has died.

Snow, who was nominated for best new artist at the 1975 Grammys, died Tuesday morning in Edison, N.J., from complications of a brain hemorrhage she suffered in January 2010, said Rick Miramontez, her longtime friend and public relations representative. She was 60.

Snow's manager, Sue Cameron, said the singer endured bouts of blood clots, pneumonia and congestive heart failure since her stroke."

(more at the link)

Singer Phoebe Snow Has Died; Her 'Poetry Man' Was A Hit In The '70s

(short note at NPR, includes a YouTube link)

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 – 2011)
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 11:58 AM

(The NY Times item is from the Associated Press. Wikipedia gives her year of birth as 1952; NPR, says she was 58.)

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 � 2011)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 12:01 PM

Oh no!

Loved her since she started singing publicly. Heaven's getting richer all the time.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 � 2011)
From: Mark Ross
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 12:30 PM

I remember her from the '60's in the Village. We shared the same birth date, though she was a few years younger. A sweet lady, and a great singer. I still remember her singing and playing the blues before she started writing songs. She will be missed.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 – 2011)
From: open mike
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 12:43 PM

sorry to hear about this...and to hear that she had been having health
problems since 2010. R.I.P.

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 – 2011)
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 07:33 PM

very sad news.

May she find eternal peace.

biLL

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 – 2011)
From: catspaw49
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 07:38 PM

Very sad.........Always wished she had done more............


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 – 2011)
From: Wesley S
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 08:07 PM

What a great singer. She'll be missed. I remember hearing her on the radio singing the old R&R tune "Tossin and Turnin" - she did it as a slow blues. It was a killer version and a lession to me how a song can be changed by just adjusting the tempo.

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 - 2011)
From: Janie
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 11:39 PM

Wonderful voice.

I admire her priorities and sacrifices - of which I was totally unaware.

My condolences to her family and all who knew and loved her.

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 - 2011)
From: Genie
Date: 27 Apr 11 - 03:58 AM

Damn!
Not so much because she died (it's inevitable). Because I hate for someone to suffer from strokes and the like - especially at such a relatively young age. And because I want voices like Phoebe's to keep on singing for a long time.

I really do think that angel band must be getting to be pretty awesome by now.

Genie

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 - 2011)
From: clueless don
Date: 27 Apr 11 - 08:21 AM

I was saddened to hear this news yesterday on NPR. I will remember her best for the duet she sang with Paul Simon on his song "Gone at Last".

Don

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 - 2011)
From: GUEST,bankley
Date: 27 Apr 11 - 09:42 AM

adieu...

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 - 2011)
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 27 Apr 11 - 12:48 PM

The NY Times has now published its own obituary (the one I linked in the original post was from the Associated Press).

Phoebe Snow, Bluesy Singer-Songwriter, Dies at 60

By STEPHEN HOLDEN
April 26, 2011

Phoebe Snow, whose signature hit, "Poetry Man," established her as a leading light of the singer-songwriter movement and whose swooping vocal acrobatics transcended musical genres, died on Tuesday in Edison, N.J. She was 60.

Her death, at a hospital in Edison, was caused by complications of a stroke she suffered in January 2010, her manager, Sue Cameron, said. Some sources give Ms. Snow's age as 58, though New Jersey voter records say she was born on July 17, 1950.

"Poetry Man," a lilting guitar-based original song from her 1974 debut album, "Phoebe Snow" (Shelter), catapulted Ms. Snow to fame. The song, with lyrics addressed to a married man, rose to No. 5 on Billboard's Hot 100, and the album went to No. 4 on the album chart. Released as the singer-songwriter movement was at the peak of its influence, the album led to a Grammy nomination for Ms. Snow as best new artist of 1974.

A soaring contralto, Ms. Snow was variously labeled a jazz, blues, pop, funk and gospel artist, depending on the record she released. Few popular singers of her generation combined the technical resources she commanded. She was a renowned interpreter of soul and rock classics, including the Temptations' "Shakey Ground," Barbara Acklin's "Love Makes a Woman," the Buckinghams' "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" and Aretha Franklin's "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man," which Ms. Snow sang with a roof-raising power.

Phoebe Ann Laub was born in New York City and grew up in Teaneck, N.J. Her mother, Lili, an alumnus of the Martha Graham company, was a dance teacher. Her father, Merrill Laub, was an exterminator who collected and restored antiques.

Phoebe Laub took her professional name from a fictional advertising character created in the early 1900s by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, which named its flagship train the Phoebe Snow. She saw the name on boxcars as the train passed through town.

After graduating from Teaneck High School, Ms. Snow attended Shimer College in Mount Carroll, Ill., for two years but dropped out to perform in clubs. She was married briefly to Phil Kearns, a musician, and they had a daughter, Valerie, who was born with severe brain damage. Her care occupied much of the rest of Ms. Snow's life.

"I've finally settled into realizing that my daughter is what she is," she told The New York Times in 1983. "Any progress she makes is fantastic, but I no longer foresee any miracles happening. I went through phases of the occult and of trying to find every single doctor in the country who could possibly do something. I realize now that I can't move mountains."

Refusing to institutionalize Valerie, who suffered from hydrocephalus and was not expected to live long, Ms. Snow cared for her daughter until her death on March 18, 2007, at age 31.

Ms. Snow, who is survived by her sister, Julie Laub, and an uncle, Bob Laub, maintained that her devotion to her daughter was her greatest accomplishment.

Ms. Snow was discovered at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village in 1972 by Denny Cordell, a promotion executive for Shelter Records, based in Tulsa, Okla. Mr. Cordell produced her first record, which included guest performances by Zoot Sims, the Persuasions and Teddy Wilson.

Besides "Poetry Man," the most striking original song on her debut album, "I Don't Want the Night to End," is about a lover named Charlie Parker (not the jazz saxophonist), who had died. The introspective, quirky coffeehouse torch-singing of that hit was a style she later largely abandoned to pursue various hybrids of hard rock, soul and gospel. Her only other single to reach the top 25 was her 1975 duet with Paul Simon on his gospel song "Gone at Last."

After 1975, motherhood took precedence over Ms. Snow's career. Her album "Second Childhood," a moody follow-up to "Phoebe Snow" released by Columbia in 1976, was certified gold, with sales of over 500,000, but it was still considered a commercial disappointment.

Three more Columbia albums followed: the hard-edged "It Looks Like Snow," the medium-soft "Never Letting Go" and the funky "Against the Grain." She then left Columbia to record for Mirage ("Rock Away," 1981), and Elektra ("Something Real," 1989.") "Something Real" was her last album to reach the Billboard album charts.

Her changing labels while owing money to them led to years of legal battles and financial hardship. "With my quick success, I didn't have time to learn the ropes of the music business," she told The Times in 1983. "Because my first record was such a hit, I was terribly spoiled and I thought I couldn't do anything wrong. I was also desperate to make tons of money because of my responsibility to my daughter. And there was no longer any joy in making music."

At the same time, the singer-songwriter movement waned, and the breadth and individuality of her musical personality made marketing her talent to narrow radio formats problematic. Her focus on her daughter also made touring difficult.

In 1994, Ms. Snow performed at the Woodstock 25th Anniversary festival as part of a soul act that included Thelma Houston, Mavis Staples and CeCe Peniston. She was recruited by Donald Fagen, of Steely Dan fame, to participate in the New York Rock and Soul Revue, a series of concerts in which she performed along with Charles Brown, Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs and others. The project led to a 1991 album recorded live at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan. She also recorded "Have Mercy," a duet with Jackson Browne.

As her record sales diminished Ms. Snow became a highly sought-after voice on commercial jingles for companies like Michelob, Hallmark and AT&T.

In 2003, she released "Natural Wonder," her first album of new original material in 14 years. In 2007, shortly after her daughter's death, Ms. Snow appeared at Birdland, the Manhattan jazz club, where she delivered a blazing performance that showed her gifts undiminished.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: April 26, 2011

An earlier version of this obituary incorrectly reported Phoebe Snow's age and year of birth.

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 - 2011)
From: Donuel
Date: 27 May 11 - 10:26 PM

She is among my top five favorite female vocal artists.

She was such an artist that many put her in the jazz interpretation catagory. If she were a painter she would be Klimt while most singers today are screamers and would paint garishly like Warhol.

Subject: RE: Obit: Phoebe Snow (1952 - 2011)
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 May 11 - 10:59 PM

That is really sad, but what an honourable life she lived, with such devotion and care for her daughter.