Peter Hammill, sometimes with the band Van der Graaf Generator.
Not a conventional voice and avoid his live recordings as your first taste of him. Godbluff or Still Life might be the best place to start, both VDGG albums.
|
Jimmy Dale Gilmore. Laura Nyro. Donovan. Fritz Wunderlich. Les Double Six. Ryan Bingham.
|
Laura Nyro ........thanks for the reminder about this great artist.
|
@whatjd ,
I'd consider the ones you named to be '"the usual suspects". |
Here are some of mine,
Dawn Landes
Caroline Spence
Colter Wall
James Fullbright
Gill Landry
Jenny Lewis
Neko Case
Sarah Jarozs
Nicole Atkins
John Moreland
John Fogerty
Annie Lennox
I could go on........
|
Brian Protheroe
Millard Powers
Johnny Rivers - today while playing all his own licks |
Fred Astaire and older Willy "Mink" DeVille.
Recall Burt Bacharach playing the piano/singing his own songs on a TV special (years ago) and thought he was really good for a guy without much of a voice.
Also Eric Clapton who became a good vocalist later on in his career, and the same for (older) Buck Owens.
DeKay |
DeKay :
Mr. Astaire has been a lifelong "hero" of mine. I have seen most of his films several times with "Holiday Inn" being the most watched. He was more of an example of how to be a man than most of the macho/mainstream film men.
I do mean the original film "Holiday Inn"....the remake "White Christmas" was simply making money off the hit song...and Danny Kaye is no Fred Astaire.
|
+1 on Johnny Rivers
Lizz Wright any of you soul or gospel lovers owe it to yourself to check her out. ( Her version of Hendrix In From the Storm should help convince you.) |
There are too many to name but one to add to the list that only comes to mind because I listened last night is the late great wonderful singer/songwriter and South Philly’s own Jim Croce. He left us much too soon. |
Two "other" singer/songwriters that I have recently discovered are Nick Drake and Tim Buckley. I can't believe it took so long, but I highly recommend both.
|
|
tonykay -- Tim Buckley is one of my favorite artists. I gotta say, though, that the one time I saw him perform, at the Troubadour some years after his peak, he was absolutely awful. At least to my ears. Sure, it was okay that he might not want to revisit his more successful days, but essentially, all he did was randomly strum his guitar and shriek.
|
Jim:
If you still do LP’s search Ebay for a box (mono) set of Fred Astaire recordings released by Easton Press.
I have numerous crappy recordings of Fred, but the Easton issues rival/top the best audiophile recordings of older material that go for big bucks.
No mention on Discdogs and very little WWW info on this publishing (mainly books) company.
I have 5-6 of their box LP sets (issued in the mid 80’s) and all are stellar.
They issued cassettes as well (no CD’s) based upon my WWW searches over the years.
Not a clue as to how they pulled it off, but the "sound quality" is truly mystically good for the old recordings.
Oh and...
Plus infinity on "what a MAN/SENTIENT BEING" Fred was.
DeKay
|
edcyn,
I have read about the erratic, unhappy lives of both Tim Buckley and Nick Drake. From what I read, they were both disappointed in the response to some of their early albums. They're both gone now but their albums are here for us to enjoy. My next foray will be into the catalogue of Fred Neil. I would not even be aware of any of these singer/songwriters but for the info I found in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die." Good reading!
|
Gosh, there are so many not-so-well-known singers (at least to the general public---present company in some cases excluded ;-) I love. Lou Ann Barton, Kasey Chambers, Julie Miller, Iris Dement, Patty Loveless, Darlene Love, Arlene Smith (lead singer of The Chantels. Listen to their recording of "Maybe"), Dan Hicks, Don Everly, Johnny Burnette, Mose Allison, Big Joe Turner, Louis Jordan, dozens of others. |
Thanks to all. As bdp said, there are many........thankfully. |
Fred Astaire was so talented, it's almost difficult to believe he existed.
|
|
|
