Why is a singer one of your favorites?

Subject: RE: Why is a singer one of your favorites?
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 02:07 PM

...and just to be clear, I wouldn't limit my taste for Louis' singing only to chanteys (as the Nelson song is not a chantey). Whether it's an industrial song, love song, you name it, he knows how to interpret them.

Subject: RE: Why is a singer one of your favorites?
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 01:51 PM

Of the several that are my favorites, two stand at the pinnacle.

KATE RUSBY
She is the total package: unaffected moving voice, great interpretation, and the arrangements she and husband John McCusker put together turn every song into gold. Her recordings seem to get better and better at each listening. Songs I glossed over for others, suddenly hit me with their beauty, a year after owning that particular CD.

LOUIS KILLEN
Louis just plain knows how to sing traditional songs. There is a certain high, faraway sound in chantey singing I really like, something similar to what bluegrass musicians call the "high lonesome" sound. A.L.lloyd had it, Ewan MacColl had it, and Louis has it. Louis's interpretations of traditional songs, for me, set the standard. Anyone who has heard him sing The Death of Nelson knows what I mean.

Subject: RE: Why is a singer one of your favorites?
From: Rasener
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 12:56 PM

I like Tom Waits. He has something about him, but I can't explain.

Downtown Train and Tom Trauberts Blues are great.

What makes it even better, is that another of my favourites has recorded those 2 numbers - Rod Stewart

Subject: RE: Why is a singer one of your favorites?
From: Once Famous
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 12:19 PM

Lyle Lovett is one who can really sing.

And write, too.

Subject: RE: Why is a singer one of your favorites?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 12:13 PM

Teresa:

Yes, Jean Ritchie is cut from the same cloth as Mississippi John. I had the great joy of booking Jean Many years ago, and her modesty and lack of any affection really made her music even more special.

Rain Dog:

Yeah, Tom Waits! I first became aware of him from a documentary about him, many, many years ago. I always was fascinated with that urban underbelly because it was exotic to me as a tropical rainforest.) Waits immediately struck me as a Hopper song, rather than a painting. He has that same ability to capture the bleakness and loneliness of late night America. Can he sing? Oh yeah! I recently picked up the Soundtrack for Sleepless in Seattle (used) and was reminded about how great a singer Jimmie Durante was, with no discernable voice. Jimmie Durante could Sing those songs.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Why is a singer one of your favorites?
From: Rain Dog
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 11:30 AM

One of my favourite singers is Tom Waits.
First saw / heard him on the Old Grey Whistle Test ( UK TV program ) back in 77 or 78 doing Tom Traubert's Blues and then Small Change. It was a case of what the hell is this ?
Then came across him again in the 80s when a friend put Frank's Wild Years on tape for me.
It was his voice that first made an impression on me. The way that he uses his voice as another instrument. On an album he might sing in a number of different ways, styles, sounds etc. Not to everyone's taste of course but then again what is ? Plus he writes some great songs.
Check him out. If you have heard him before and think along the lines of ; what the hell is this ? , he cannot sing etc etc , check him out again. He might very well surprise you.
He also has a reputation as being a great live performer, with the slight drawback that he does not appear to like touring much. Luckily I will have the chance to see him live ( for the first time ) in Berlin and London this November. I have to say that I am getting a little excited at the prospect and I do not normally 'do' excitement.

Subject: RE: Why is a singer one of your favorites?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 11:03 AM

John Hurt is a favorite of mine, too, for all the same reasons as for Jerry. It's difficult to verbalize just what makes a given singer more appealing than another, but it certainly has a lot to do with how much of the person -- of the soul -- comes through in the sound of his/her voice.

Roy Bird, aka Professor Longhair, is my very-most-favorite of all, and I hear much the same type of feeling from him as I do from MJH. (The fact that I was able to witness Fess in person many, many times but know John Hurt only from his recordings, of course, probably has some effect upon my preference.)

Some might feel that Mississippi John falls under the definition of "folk music" while Fess does not, but to my thinking, both grew out of well-established musical traditions (one rural, one urban) and both added their own original flavor, so they have plenty in common and there must be some category that encompasses them both.

Both were virtuosos on their instruments, with totally unique self-taught, self-invented approaches to the piano and guitar, respectively. And both of their voices conveyed an irresitable combination of wisdom, world-weariness, sweetness, humor, and good will. What more could you ask for?

Subject: RE: Why is a singer one of your favorites?
From: Teresa
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 11:01 AM

Can I do more than one? I will anyway. ;)

Well, stan Rogers. I heard his voice on the radio when I was 15 and that was it; he just literally yanked me into folk music. Wonderful pitch; delicious baritone. And I came to realize that his storytelling through is songs was incredible and always kept me interested.

Jean Ritchie, for an entirely different reason. Similar one to Jerry's with Mississippi John. She has this way of making everything warm and cozy without trying, and even her voice sounds like that. :)

T

Subject: RE: Why is a singer one of your favorites?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 10:44 AM

Gotta add Dylan's BLOWING IN THE WIND

Subject: RE: Why is a singer one of your favorites?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 10:41 AM

I'm a "word" person. I like songs that have something to say besides yeah yeah baby, don't mean maybe. That crap bores me to tears.
In my not so humble opinion, two of the most profound songs of this century are, Eric Bogle's THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA, and WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE.

Subject: RE: Why I a singer one of your favorites?
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 09:57 AM

You forgot his concertina,accordion and guitar playing, Britney imitations and resemblance to a demented beanpole on acid when singing sans fiddle in Bellowhead.

You're right about his being pitch perfect - he always realises when he doesn't quite get that top note but this is part of the joy of his performance: will he or won't he?   And you're certainly spot-on about the 'all-round good geezer' bit (have to say that as Jon & John are playing my local venue, Islington Folk Club tomorrow.

Subject: RE: Why I a singer one of your favorites?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 09:36 AM

It took me ages to choose which one to write about - but I have chosen now, and I'll go with an unusual one, because he is known mostly for his fiddle playing as part of a due: Jon Boden of Spiers & Boden fame.

He is one of my favourite singers because:

a) He is correct, pitch-perfect (amazing how many "stars" are not)
b) He is selective in the material he chooses to sing
c) He has a "youthful" voice - unsurprisingly, as he's young; but one can be older and still have a young voice (June Tabor, Moira Craig)...
d) ...yet he can sound "world-weary" when required
e) He has an informal, non-pompous, delivery of the song
f) He is a tenor (there is a dearth of them in the folk scene nowadays)
g) He has "soul" in his voice
h) He has a very catchy (and hard to imitate) lilt to his voice, almost like a little sob, which he does NOT over-use, and I find it very endearing.
i) He has a very unaffected, workaday attitude and is a right good bloke (as indeed is his partner in music, John S)

So - I'd pay just to listen to him sing. The fact that he is also a great fiddle player with a grand sense of rhythm and a taste for the unusual just makes him even better.

Subject: RE: Why I a singer one of your favorites?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 09:35 AM

Strange for a folk singer I suppose but I like Elton John songs simply because I can sing them easily and sound good doing it.
With regard to Folk songs....Donovan..whose songs I can also sing reasonably well. Best wishes.

Subject: RE: Why I a singer one of your favorites?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 08:46 AM

This title is upposed to be Why Is a Singer... I corrected the typo when I was doing it, but it didn't come through when I posted it. Maybe a Mudelf can correct it for me?

Jerry

Subject: Why Is a singer one of your favorites?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 22 Sep 04 - 08:44 AM

This is a companion thread to the "3rd Most Favorite Singer" thread. Every "Best" or "Favorite" thread in here becomes a long, long list of names, with only an occasional comment about why someone, or some song is "Best." For a change, how about chosing One of your favorites (whether your most favorite, or eleventh most favorite) and talk about why you like their music so much. (No need to list your top ten on this thread...)

There are a lot of reasons why a particular singer hits us dead on. It may be the songs they sing, or the songs they write. It may be the timbre of their voice, or the vocal range (sometimes we gravitate toward people with the same vocal range because it is easy to sing along with them.) It may be their stage presence, or who they are as a person (although some of my favorite singers I never heard in person and only know from recordings.)

I could easily chose Mississippi John Hurt (who I had the great honor of hearing perform a couple of times) or Lonnie Donegan (who I only know from recordings.) Talk about different styles! Just to get this thread started, I'll take Mississippi John Hurt, and come back later for Lonnie. If someone else talks about Lonnie, that doesn't mean I might not come back in and talk about him too.

Now, Mississippi John... it would take a long time to talk about why he is one of my very favorite singers. I first heard him on the Anthology Of American Folk Music and was equally attracted to his singing and his guitar playing. In Mississippi's case, I can't really separate the two, as his guitar so perfectly fits his singing. They seem organically joined at the hip. When I had a chance to hear Hurt, there were many things to enjoy about him. He was certainly the most modest, humble man I ever heard get up in front of an audience. With John, every room was a living room. While he didn't have a strong voice, and his singing lacked any dynamic edge to it, he had a wonderful, sly sense of humor, a great smile and a constant twinkle in his eye. All of this came through in his singing. I can't hear him sing the verse:
   "Big fish, little fish, swimming in the water
    Come back here man, and give me my quarter"
without laughing.

Hurt's material also fascinated me because it gave me a glimpse into a life and a culture that was exotic to a white kid growing up in Wisconsin where the only blacks I saw were in National Geographic.

There's a saying in the black community that really sums up everything I feel about Mississippi John's singing. When someone gets up and puts everything they have into a song, people say. "He was really SINGING that song!" It is a wonderful phrase that is used to compliment anything someone does that they are doing well.. "Man, you're WEARING that hat!"

Mississippi John really SANG those songs. Sang the Hell out of them.

next...

Jerry