The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Jazz musician Eri Yamamoto

Eri Yamamoto is a popular jazz pianist based in New York.

Born in Osaka, Japan, she moved to the United States in 1995. Since the year 2000, her jazz trio has been a regular act at Arthur's Tavern, a renowned jazz club in New York's Greenwich Village. Herbie Hancock is one of many who count themselves as fans.

Her Web site is here.

That's it for my second series of beautiful women in music. I'll be back with new pictures soon. :-)

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Rock musician Nancy Wilson of Heart

Last time I did a month's worth of posts devoted to beautiful women in music, I posted a picture of Nancy Wilson the jazz singer and promised to feature Nancy Wilson the Heart guitarist/singer in my next series of beautiful women in music.

Promise made, promise kept. :-)

With her sister Ann, Nancy Wilson led Heart, one of the biggest rock and roll bands of the seventies and eighties. Although many people remember Heart for synthesized power ballads of the 1980s like "These Dreams," Heart's glory days were in the 1970s, in which they produced a string of heavy rock and roll songs worthy of classic rock - "Barracuda," "Crazy On You," Magic Man," and "Dreamboat Annie," among others. They even found time to cover Aaron Neville's "Tell It Like It Is."

One critic likened Heart's sound in the seventies to a mix of Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin - "Jethro Zeppelin."

In 1986, Nancy Wilson married rock journalist turned filmmaker Cameron Crowe.

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Jazz singer Melissa Walker

Melissa Walker is a well respected jazz vocalist from Canada currently living in the New York area. She's known for having one of the richest voices in the jazz world.

She's played prestigious clubs like Iridium and Birdland, and she recorded her first album, Little Wishes, in 1993. Several recordings have followed since then, and Ms. Walker is also involved with her own philanthropic organization, Jazz House Kids Inc., which is dedicated to providing jazz enrichment programs for children.

Her Web site is here.

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Folk-rock singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega

In the 1980s, Suzanne Vega was the favorite pop singer of everyone who hated 1980s pop.

She was the second coming of Joni Mitchell, with, as one critic noted, a touch of Lou Reed.

Vega's self-titled debut album and her single "Marlene On the Wall," both from 1985, were favorites among the college kids of the period (me included) for their literate lyrics and driving folk rock. Her 1987 single "Luka," about child abuse from the perspective of the victim, went to number three on the Billboard singles charts. The album that featured it, Solitude Standing, became a bigger success than her debut LP, thanks to songs like the title track, "Night Vision," and the a capella tune "Tom's Diner." Fans hoped she would lead a revolt against the mindless MTV pop of the time, but Vega's success proved to be an aberration from the norm. And she didn't want to lead a revolution anyway.

She continued as a respected singer-songwriter, releasing acclaimed albums such as 99.9 F and Nine Objects of Desire in the nineties. In 2007, she issued her seventh album, Beauty and Crime.

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Country singer Carrie Underwood

Here's yet another blonde country and western singer.

(You got a problem with that? I didn't think so! :-D)

Originally from Oklahoma, Carrie Underwood won the 2005 competition on the television singing contest "American Idol," and she represents what the show is at its best and what it's supposed to be about - finding musical talent that otherwise wouldn't get a break.

After winning that competition, her single "Jesus Take The Wheel" catapulted to number one on the Billboard country charts.

Most of her singles, which include "Don't Forget To Remember Me," "So Small, and "All-American Girl," have been Top Forty pop hits - nine of them have either hit number one (six in a row at one point!) or number two on the country charts, all in a period of four years.

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Country singer Taylor Swift

To many people who aren't country and western fans, Taylor Swift is best known as the singer who got upstaged by Kanye West at the MTV Video Awards. But to others, she's the biggest thing to happen to country in a long time.

The Pennsylvania-born Swift has to her credit two albums, both of which have topped the American country charts, and a Christmas EP. Her hit singles include "Tim McGraw" (about you-know-who), "Love Story," and "You Belong With Me." And there are five more.

She does not, as of this writing, turn twenty for another two months.

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Bonnie Raitt

The one and only. (You'll notice how I don't use that phrase here often. :-) )

Bonnie Raitt is the daughter of Broadway musical star John Raitt, and her own musical style - a mix of country, blues and rock and roll - couldn't be farther from the show tunes her father performed. She enjoyed a strong reputation for being one hot rockin' blueswoman in the 1970s with classic albums such as Give It Up, Takin' My Time, and Home Plate.

Commercial success finally came for Bonnie Raitt in 1989 with her LP Nick Of Time, which one three Grammys - Album of the Year, Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and, for the title song, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Other hits from the record included "Have a Heart" and a cover of John Hiatt's "Thing Called Love." Her 1991 album Luck Of the Draw was an even bigger success, and it featured the hit singles "Something To Talk About" and "Not The Only One."

She looks more beautiful with age. She turns sixty this November 8. :-)

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Katy Perry

Katy Perry is part of a new generation of edgy female singer-songwriters - she is not the second coming of Joni Mitchell! - and she gets as much attention for her fashion sense as her music. And her music is getting a lot of attention.

Her breakthrough hit was 2008's "I Kissed A Girl," not to be confused with the song of the same name from Jill Sobule. Perry, the daughter of evangelical ministers, defends the song in these terms:

"Love it, hate it, for me it was about us girls. When we're young, we're very touchy-feely. We have slumber party sing-alongs, we make up dance routines in our pajamas. We’re a lot more intimate in a friendship than guys can be. It’s not perverse but just sweet, that's what the song is about."

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Country singer Beth Nielsen Chapman

Beth Nielsen Chapman is a country singer-songwriter with huge crossover appeal.

Her songs have been recorded by other artists, and she's had several hits of her own, such as "All I Have," "I Keep Coming Back To You," and the achingly beautiful "The Moment You Were Mine."

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Sarah McLachlan

Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan is as beautiful as her music.

Known for her mezzo soprano voice, McLachlan is known for her heartfelt, emotional ballads. Her hits include "Angel" and "I Will Remember You."

She's also known for her charity work, particularly with promoting animal welfare. :-)

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Soul singer Evelyn "Champagne" King

Evelyn "Champagne" King began a long career in rhythm and blues at the age of seventeen, when she released her debut LP Smooth Talk.

She's had several hits in the past three decades, including "I'm in Love" and "Love Come Down," which both topped the Billboard R&B chart. When one of her records displaced a record from Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, at the top of the chart, the pop press noted that the Queen had been dethroned by a King. :-D

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Debbie Harry

Debbie Harry, the lead singer for the American New Wave band Blondie, was so synonymous with her group that many people thought she was a solo artist and Blondie was her stage name.

She was and remains the classiest woman to ever front a rock and roll band. Many of today's female singers can't even come close to replicating Harry's sense of style.

Blondie's hits included "Heart Of Glass," "Call Me," and a remake of the reggae song "The Tide Is High."

The Beauty Of Song, Part Two: Country singer Crystal Gayle

The younger sister of the legendary Loretta Lynn, Crystal Gayle - born Brenda Gail Webb in 1951 - became famous in Nashville for two things: her large voice and her long hair.

Indeed, her hair is a great part of her identity. Crystal Gayle looks the part of one of those mythical Southern country girls with long pretty hair reaching down to their shoes, like the old Jodi doll from the 1970s.

Asked once by her record company to cut her hair, Gayle refused to, especially after getting feedback from her daughter about what would result if she did. "Mom," she told her, "you won't be Crystal Gayle."

Crystal Gayle is no lightweight as a singer, possessing a strong voice and an ability to use it well. She had a string of hit country singles on the pop charts in the late seventies, back when noted country music fan Jimmy Carter was president. Her hits included "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue," "Talking In Your Sleep," and "Half The Way."

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards

Kathleen Edwards is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Canada whose sound has been described as "alternative country."

After an extended player and two albums, Edwards broke through in 2005 with her album Back To Me, which included the title track and "In State," both released as singles. Her 2008 album Asking For Flowers, her most successful LP to date, featured the single "I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory."

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Sheryl Crow

The one and only. :-)

Sheryl Crow is the greatest American rock and roll songstress of the past twenty years.

A one-time music teacher in her native Missouri, Sheryl Crow spent the eighties trying to make it as a recording artist and, in 1993, finally broke through with her second attempt at a debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club. The album, which featured the hits "All I Wanna Do" and "Strong Enough,"sold seven million copies.

Every subsequent album she's done has gone platinum, and she has continued to have hit singles: "If It Makes You Happy," "Every Day Is a Winding Road," "Soak Up the Sun," and a cover of Cat Stevens's "The First Cut Is the Deepest."

Sheryl Crow released a Christmas album in 2008, and at this writing is preparing a new studio LP for 2010.

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Soul singer Anita Baker

Anita Baker emerged in the eighties as one of the best female soul singers of the decade, and possibly the best singer in any genre of the time. To date, she has won eight Grammy Awards and she has to her credit four platinum albums and two gold albums.

Her second album, 1986's Rapture, was her commercial breakthrough, which she followed up with the similarly successful Giving You the Best That I Got two years later. Her hit singles include "Sweet Love," "Just Because," and Talk To Me." Although Anita Baker came out of the 1980s, she somehow managed to make it without scandalous videos on MTV - she relied exclusively on her talent.

Fun fact: Although Anita Baker is from Detroit, she became known for never having learned how to drive a car.

The Beauty of Song, Part Two: Jazz vocalist Jackie Allen

Jackie Allen is a Chicago-based jazz singer who has performed steadily, and she has recorded since 1994.

Her repertoire includes all the obvious jazz standards, of course, but it also includes songs from artists ranging from James Taylor to Van Morrison, and from Paul Simon to Annie Lennox.

Originally from Wisconsin, Jackie Allen is also a music teacher, serving on the faculty of the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and having taught at Elmhurst College, Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, Bloom School of Jazz and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee.

More information on her is available at her Web site.

New Series: The Beauty of Song, Part Two!

For the month of October 2009, I am featuring beautiful women in the world of music for a second time.

There will be plenty of vocalists, obviously, but if I find any instrumentalists to feature, they will certainly be included.

So let's get started! :-)