Monday, March 24, 2008

My Dad's "Girl Singers"

My dad has a certain style of female vocalist that appeals to him. A certain quirkiness, a certain range, a certain... je ne sais quoi, that makes certain artists his "Favorite Girl Singer" for the moment. Usually within a week, he has another, but not always. I think, unless he complains about it, that I will update you, my readers with the...
Nearly Weekly Girl Singer of the (somewhere around a) Week!

The First "Girl Singer" brought to my attention was Corinne Bailey Rae, whose name I had to type several different times to get the spelling right. I had no idea, when starting this post that I would accidentally run into Breaking News, but..

THIS JUST IN: Corinne Bailey Rae's husband, Jason Rae, was found over this weekend dead of an apparent drug-overdose, although toxicology reports are pending. A man is was being held on suspicion of supplying the lethal drugs, but is now out on bail.

... And now, continuing with the Music-related (and hopefully not further death-related) post, Corinne Bailey Rae's self-titled album was my brother's Christmas gift to my Dad two Decembers ago, and I am pretty sure this was the first time I heard the term "My New Favorite Girl Singer" from my Dad. Her song "Put Your Records On" was her big hit, until her performance at the Grammy Awards of "Like A Star", which is her Current big hit.

I didn't keep in very good touch with my Dad for a while there, following that Christmas, but then I started a little blog, called The Daily Blog of the Day, and badgered him (and everybody else I know) into subscribing. Since then I have gotten much more frequent updates on Girl Singerdom, and the first of these was Feist. Nobody doesn't kow who Leslie Feist is nowadays, thanks to a little thing called the Apple iPod Nano, and the commercials for it.
Prior to the Apple iPod Nano commercial airing, The Reminder was selling at approximately 6,000 copies per week, and "1234" at 2,000 downloads per week. Following the commercial, the song passed 73,000 total downloads and reached No. 7 on Hot Digital Songs and No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100; The Reminder jumped from No. 36 to No. 28 on the Billboard 200, with sales of 19,000
--From Aol Music, via Wikipedia.

Then We moved on to Katie Melua, whose song "If You Were A Sailboat" was recommended especially, but whose song "Nine Million Bicycles" I like even better.

Then on to Yael Naim, whose Song "New Soul" was featured in... An Apple Commercial! This one for the Manila-clad "Air" Notebook. (Steve Jobs and my Dad seem to have very similar tastes when it comes to Girl Singers) It is Super catchy, He sent me a link to this video, but I will send you to this one instead, because it doesn't feature a Trombono-cam. (You can click that first link, if you simply must see a Trombono-cam, but you shouldn't. You will now, though, won't you?)

Then on to the current Girl Singer of the Moment, Regina Spektor. My brother Jeremy brought her to my Dad's attention, and I think she is pretty groovy. I had heard of her before my dad sent me a link, but I had never really listened to her much, and I had never seen her, either. I was surprised to find out she was white. Much as I had been surprised long before to find out that Corinne Bailey Rae wasn't. Oh well, live and learn. My e-friend and co-blogger Art described her this way on his blog:

Regina Spektor - She reminds me of Leslie Feist… only interesting. And I'm pretty sure the lovely Ms. Regina can properly count to ten.


Allison Krauss also recently got a nod from Dad, in a related category.. "Girl Singer singing with a Groovy Geezer"

When further "Girl Singers" are discovered, I will bring them to your attention, here on the Daily Blog of the Day!

Got any favorites that fit into this category? Let me (and my Dad) know! As a Matter of Fact, I'll start... Hey Dad, have you heard HER?

(please let me know by e-mail if any of these links are broken! I am having a few "issues" with the new computer still.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Check out Camera Obscura (not so much a 'girl singer' as a female led indie pop act). Their album "Lets Get Out of This Country" was one of my favorite releases of 2006. Here's a link to the song "If Looks Could Kill".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztIWgEO0vRc

Anonymous said...

She's a weird actress and model, but I really enjoyed Milla Jovovich's album "Divine Comedy"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5O5rEhdUho&feature=related

Anonymous said...

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=27486006

Oh, and her,too.

Red Panda said...

Regina Spektor=Feist, but interesting. THANK YOU! I think Feist is sooo boring, but I like Regina.

Tell your dad to listen to Ingrid Michaelson if he hasn't already.