Gimme some sweet folk
(with a little country in it...) !
"Branchez les guitares..."
- Big Soul -
Let's start by the one that made it all start for me :
Suzanne Vega
I don't know if you're aware but in my opinion, in France in 1986,
there was not much to listen for a young girl who didn't like
"synthetizers". Vega offered me a rich musical alternative and
soothing and intelligent words when I desperatly needed some. It was Solitude
standing, her second wonderful album, pure new-yorker folk like
the first one. Then she followed her own musical line, from Days
of open hands until the surprising and brilliant 99.9
F and the brand new Nine objects of desire. She's a
woman who built her own universe, and exploring it is like
watching the waves : it's soothing.
I think it was the same year that a little woman showed up at Wembley,
with guys like Sting or Bruce Springsteen for a big concert. They all
came with all their superstar stuff and there she was, only
girl, unknown, with her guitar, alone in the middle of the
stage... and she began to sing Talking 'bout
revolution... and... ten years later I'm still impressed
by Tracy Chapman and her music ! Ok, the third album (just after the
eponym album and Crossroads) was not her best but,
believe me, I saw her in concert, singing songs of the new one
New beginning, and it deserves its name !!!!
Then I discovered that (I still think so though it might be wrong)
folk came basically from country music with Michelle
Shocked and her tonic and brilliant Short, Sharp and
Shocked. It followed the most original album I ever heard
: The Texas Campfire tape which story really worths the
telling but I don't have the time ! Her work is deep, personal
and really beautiful. Every album has its own color (taste the
difference between Captain Swing and Arkansas
traveller) and I've
rarely heard a singer who had such a sense of melody and tale
telling ! And... what's also great is that she's got a humour and
politic preoccupations that sound just fine to me !
In the same time (it was in 1988 I think), another album stroke me but I just couldn't stamp it
"folk"... I went in a record store, put some headphones on and a
female lion roared "DON'T WALK AWAAAAY" between my two ears
so... I just staid... It was Union by Toni
Child. And it was strange and strong worldtrip, from
United States to Zimbabwae. Then it was House of hope and
all the ghosts of a family who hurted her and then The woman's
boat dedicated to birth and life but still haunted by the
death of her mother. Each of them is a dive in the soul of a
tortured woman who fights to live in peace... Or at least it's
what I felt...
1988 was a really rich year for me because it was also that year that
I discovered that european girls could also do interesting things with
their guitars... Especially irish girls... I always dreamed about
shaving my hair so when I saw
Sinéad
O'Connor's album.... I just jumped on her... it... eh, her record I mean !
The Lion and the Cobra was an angry but beautiful album, very
strong, brilliant, with what I think is her best song :
Troy. Then she tried to calm down her anger, to sound more
mature with I do not want what I haven't got but it still
contained some "girlish" rage.... Then it was Am I not your
girl, where she sang beutifully songs of other people... a break ?
Yes, maybe a break before what is in my opinion her best album :
Universal Mother, a masterpiece... It contains bright songs, from
sweet ballads (Perfect indian) to political songs
(Famine) and always with this irish touch that sounds so sweet
to my celtic ears (In this heart!!!!!). Well you had guessed it
: to me she's a kind of celtic Goddess !
Yep those years between 86 and 89 were really bases for me... It was
when I spent all the summers with
Edie Brickell (With her records, ok
! Stop riping my dreams !) and her so light music with sometimes so
sad lyrics (ah ! Shooting rubberbands at the stars !)...
I like this kind of folk too... sweet, light, with good
and honnest lyrics... and a charming singer...
Not like
Tanita Tikaram (who is also pretty, no offense !) with whom I
spent long and warm winters... she seems much darker and deeper... and
sometimes a little hermetic for my english... But her music (and her
voice !) is so calm and soothing... and she can be so funny... Try
Lovers in the city and tell me she's not as brilliant as
beautiful !
Of course there was also the young Brenda Kahn who
claimed she didn't sleep but drinked coffee instead... strange
idea but brilliant first album... and even if the second was not as
good, for songs like Mojave winter, Indiana, Lost (Epiphany in
Brooklyn) or Too far gone (Destination anywhere), she remains a
damn good singer !
Then, then, then... my sister handed me a phoney magazine where it was
written that "lesbian singer
k.d.lang" had smashed Madonna's
face in a disco... I don't know if it really happened but I
thought "hey, someone who smashes Madonna's face can't make bad
music" and I ran to the record store... Ingenue had won, as
far as I remember, 5 Grammy Awards... and it deserved it !!!!!
If I had to talk about k.d.lang, it would take 5Mo so... just go
on this page, read her biography (I can't remember the
name of that book) and become a "L-L-Lawrence Welk fan".
Well, well, well... that leads us to 1995, where I had one of my last "folk
strikes"... It was for christmas... I bought a live record of Joan Baez... she had
invited lots of friends... and among them, I fell in love
(musically !) with two of them.
Fisrt Dar
Williams, whose duets with Joan Baez on You're aging
well moved me... Her first album, The honesty room
(What a name !!) is just great ! You find everything : funny
songs (Alleluia, Flinty kind of woman), funny and scaring songs (The great
unknown, on nuclear, brrrr !), moving songs (Mark
Rothko song), terrible songs ( In love but not at
peace, isn't that terrible ??),... everything !!!! Try it
!
And get the second, Mortal City ! It's not so funny but it's so
beautiful, deep, and soooo soothing ! Listen to the interesting
"As cool as I am"... and wonder...
You're aging well moved me so at the begining that I didn't even
noticed the best duet of this album : Mary Chapin Carpenter
and Joan Baez singing Diamonds & rust... Jesus Christ,
that song !!!! Two guitars, two voices, one low, one
high... aaarh... And then I jumped on Stones in the road
her last album... And since february I keep on discovering her
six wonderful albums... She's, I think, the most country of
my favorite singers (if we except k.d.lang of course...) and one
of the most intelligent. Her songs about childhood, so simple,
are pure pearls... all her songs are pearls... I can't say more
(except that she's the kind of women you should forbid her to
put her glasses off... she's so sexy with... she's sexy anyway !)
: GO AND LISTEN TO HER ALBUMS !
Every year, I wonder if I'll discover others great singers like that
(When I say discover, it just has to do with me ! I don't
"discover" anyone !)... It's one of my fears : a year without
new folk singer... or without singer that pleases me... That's
why I was glad when this year my sister lent me her Joan
Osborne's album (Gee... got to give it back to her one
day...) and I think that we should keep an eye on this
girl... her music is... weird ? We all know One of us,
but I can tell you that songs like Spider web or
Pensacola deserve a listening ! Don't know why, she makes
me think of Janis Joplin... Doesn't THAT deserve a listening ?
Oh, and yes, of course ! This year one of my friend came at the bar
with a stange album called Jagged little pills... You
know who I'm talking about... Yep, the naughty girl who will
break her voice one day, Alanis
Morissette!
This album is electric and great... Just to give you an idea, it
reminds me of Sinéad O'Connor's first album : same
guitar, same anger... same talent ? I won't detail the whole
album but it's great, from All I really want to
Your house ! (and... what a Babe !!)
Try also this page
Oh oh... yes ! Last summer, an english friend came
from England to settle in France... and in her suitcases she had
an album of Phranc...
that you just can't find in France... And... wouh... what a girl !!!!
Her folk is one of the purest one I've ever heard (most of the songs
are played with only a guitar) and, what's important for me,
she's a lesbian who sings for the lesbians (and a beautiful one
believe me !). Straight people
can't imagine that : even if we can read between the lines of
k.d.lang or Melissa Etheridge lyrics, they are meant to be
universal. Phranc writes great songs, and songs that speak to
ME, of ME, that I can understand and recognize without doing any
effort of adaptation... It's... a relief. We should have more Phrancs to scream at straight
people "Don't lay your morality on me !"
I remember when I was 15, the father of a friend asked me "How does it
come that you know unknown foreign singers ?" I had to reply
"Well... through papers... I read and I just try to feel if they are good
or what..." Well... for Ani DiFranco, I did the same, but through
the net... The way people talked about her, the ways she spoke,
made me buy two of her albums without listening to them... and,
man I don't regret it ! She's 26... she already wrote and
produced her NINE albums... And I can tell you she's bright ! I
hope she will never disengage ! ;)
This summer I stripped search the CD's stock of the Bagdam
Cafée because I had to be DJ one night, and I found an
Indigo Girls album named Swamp Ophelia... I remembered their trio with Joan Baez, on "Don't think twice it's all right"... Do I need to say more ? They're folksingers, they're brilliant, they're lesbian... You just have to listen to them.
Hey have you seen GO Fish ? (Rose Troche - Guinever Turner) Well I saw
it about a dozen of times, and everytime I enjoyed a wonderful
song called Someone. It took me a lot of time before I found the
page of the singer/song writer Mila Drumke,
from Chicago. Actually it was just before Daddy went to
Chicago... "Daddy, you'll probably have some free time... here's a
list of records stores... have a good trip"... Man it's just a
7-tracks but... wow !!!!
Oh my God !!! I was about to forget Zrazy!!!!!
My lesbian friends made me discover this irish duo, who mixes jazz,
rock, techno, irish traditionnal music and atari programming
with talent !!! They're moving, they're funny, they're angry,
they're peaceful, they're relevant, they're lesbian and they're
OUT (we should choose Come out everybody as ou hymn !!)
!! I saw them in concert once in our small bar Bagdam
Cafée in Toulouse, and they're really great !
Lesbians, listen to Zrazy... no ! Everybody, listen to Zrazy
(and come out !)!!!
And while talking of Zrazy, I forgot Melissa Etheridge !! Oh please !
Sure you know her : Springsteen's little sister ! She sings what
I call a "broad shouldered rock" but yet very sensitive and
intelligent... especially since she came out I find... From
Similar features to This war is over, she's a lady
to listen to, even if you're not fond of girls who happen to scream...
Ooooooh ! and I forgot Marla Glenn !! Nina Simone's Cinderella !!! ("It was hell living with Nina. It was like living with a mean
grandmother. She was so hard on me, but it was cool. We had some real good
moments - like when she let me mop the floor with a mop instead of a
toothbrush.") She may have been tough with her but the result
is.... amazing !! Jesus that voice and that way of writing such
a personal music ! "Seems like I can't find the words to tell
you / I want you here / Seems like I can't find the words to tell
you / I want you near..." My life song ! If she even just helped a little bit Marla
Glen to make it, well then God bless Nina Simone !
Ok... you must be tired, no ? A few more links though...
All good music is not folk and I also like Skunk Anansie (What a
voice !)
And here is a great site :
Harmony Ridge Music dedicated to women's music...
THE catalog where I found some Phranc records (it's just to tell you
how rich it is !!) : Ladyslipper
A nice page : Women in
Music, lots of cool links...
A good page about women music : The War
Against Silence
That's all for the moment... but... I'll be back !
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