A "Unique" Voice...


A bunch of the artists I enjoy most have what may be considered as a very unconventional vocal quality. Now everyone is "unique' as are their fingerprints, to be shure, but the artists I'm thinking about are real standouts in that they are unmistakeably...well....odd perhaps. An aquired taste as their voice could easily grate on many. Maybe I should give some examples and that would be a better way to get what I mean accross:

Tom Waits comes first to mind. The little girl voice of Joanna Newsom. Those two I enjoy very much. One I just can't stand to listen to myself, Diamanda Gallas - Hey If I wanted to hear screaming like that I can just 'forget' to do the dishes a few nights in a row! Oh, yeah, Sean reminded me recently of the most bizarre, Klaus Nomi, whose mezzo soprano voice sounded more like a woman than a man. Actually Klaus was difficult to categorize himself. But actually, his voice was quite lovely as far as conventions go. So he wouldn't really qualify.

I guess what I'm saying is that these are not conventionally 'pretty' voices, yet they are engaging to many nonetheless, and certainly gifted artists, as far as those I've mentioned goes.

I'll leave it at that...any others come to mind?
jax2
Joan Baez! I know... I think she qualifies though, regardless how she may be judged ultimately. I like her earliest recordings and think her considerable intelligence made it possible for her to interpret folk songs in a fresh and interesting way for the times she offered them to.
Mary Margaret O'Hara, Hazil Adkins, The Amazing Delores,
Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Lila Downs, R.L.Burnsides, "Little" Jimmy Scott, Blossom Dearie, James "Blood" Ulmer.

Wasis Diop, Jack Bruce, Tony Joe White, Catfish Keith, Rockie Charles, Sekou Sundiata, Abed Azrie, Lydia Mendoza, Freddy Fender, Nicola Walker Smith, J.B. Lenoir, Jessie Mae Hemphill.

Not a clinker in the bunch.