2006 BEST Female Vocal CD/SACD/XRCD

AR:

I think that female vocals gets interesting, when the listener is willing to explore different genres of music. Typically female vocals is taken to mean jazz and pop music and then you get the usual suspects ... Eva Cassidy, Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Patricia Barber, etc.

If you are willing to explore opera (Anna Netrebenko), country (Rosanne Cash), world, or even goth (Evanesence comes to mind), you will get to experience the purity of the female voice in a whole new way.

Good listening, Rich

Alison Krauss - Forget About It (simply amazing SACD!)
KD Lang - Songs from the 49th Parallel (Not Audiophile, but wow!)
Janice Ian - Folk is the New Black

Calgarian

I have fallen in love with an acoustic band that features Jessica Havey on vocals. This young group of players from Canada called The Duhks plays an interesting mix of Celtic, Traditional, Gospel, Zydeco, even Reggae, and more. Jessica Havey has a voice that can be clean and clear, a little smoky and soulful at times and compelling without flashy pyrotechnics or style for its own sake. Their recent release, Migrations, is well recorded and features a variety of styles. Between Havey's vocals and Tania Elizabeth's sweet violin, my ears are caught in an aural love triangle.
Just listen to the track "Who Will Take My Place?". A true relief from over produced rubbish and a lesson on how to take a simple song and cut directly to the heart.

And Margo Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) is ALWAYS a great pick. Her brothers and her put together another great album, Early 21st Century Blues. it's mainly a great covers album, but the 3 originals are some of my most favorite Junkies songs in the past few years. Saw them in Kent OH last month and they were incredible.

Over the Rhine - Ohio

Available on double cd, or vinyl.

www.overtherhine.com

A really great band with a dozen albums out. No one seems to know them because they never really had a radio hit.

John C.