Surreal Soundz Female Vocalists Vol. 1

This is something I've wanted to do for along time now, and after spending about a year kicking the idea around my head, I decided its time to take the dive and give this one a go, and hopefully you all will enjoy it as well.

I've always been a fan of "female vocalists" I use it in quotes because of how broad this term is, a the direct definition is simply a female singer, be it solo or with a band, but the greater expansion of the term means a woman who sings by herself, or with a band, or does that "chick with a guitar" thing, or a jazz and blues singer, even a female rapper these days can be seen as a female vocalist, though some would argue that point, but not me, I'm just that way. So, with my love of female vocalists as it were, and my having large amounts of them stored on my hard drives, some greats, some known, some obscure, some unknown and some forgotten as the flow of time has gone by. And though some of them I don't really have enough to do my normal "first look" or "10 Tracks" compilations with, I felt maybe this would be the best way to go, one big awesome sampler of awesomeness... Plus I figure by doing this I might get the rest of the staff here to maybe put together some similar sets from other genres of music..

now with that said, lets get into this shall we? Oh before I get to the first artist, I'm leaving out artists I've already done things on, so Beth Hart, Mieka Pauly, Kate Klim, Jodi Shaw, and Inkubus Sukkubus, though deserving, I felt it best to let others shine just abit... Ok, lets get into this shall we?

The Artists....

Allison Crowe: Allison is represented with four songs in this compilation with four songs, Allison is kind of like a Canadian maritime Tori Amos but with ALOT more power in her voice, which to be fair does get away from her sometimes given its actual range, but it doesn't get away enough to make listening to her unenjoyable, she mostly does piano songs, and tends to cover the afore mentioned Tori Amos alot, and afew others as well, included are her covers of "Smells like Teen Spirit", "Let It Be" and "Me and Bobby McGee" as well as her own song "Northern Lights" which i just love, its a beautiful love song that makes you just feel how deep it really is.

Amy Speace: Amy is also represented with four songs, she is kind of a mix of Jewel, Sheryl Crow and Eva Cassidy, her masterful guitar playing and deep soulful lyric content, makes her a rarity, I find her voice to be strong and powerful but also tender and soft when needs be, she's got that 1970s Carol King feel to her, but with a guitar instead of a piano, which doesn't hurt it any, to many solo female vocalists do the girl with a piano thing these days, not that its a bad thing, but you know, been there done that. her songs here include "Make Me Lonely Again", "Weight Of The World", "Idle Hands" and "Two Ships" of which, I can't pick a favorite, though I do love "Idle Hands" and "Two Ships" a great deal.

Nadirah X: "Nadz" as she's called is a Jamaican/Islamic rapper who though you might not recognize her name, the more learned music fans will know her voice from her duet with Annie Lennox on the song "Womankind" as well short guests on remixes and album tracks by many bigger name artists, look for her on tracks by Will Smith, Lauryn Hill and The Roots in the near feature. Her unique style is very akin to a sort of mix of Eve and Lady Saw, with enough Queen Latifa in there to make it interesting, I love her flow and lyric content, its rough and raw and rocksteady, she has two songs "Tuff Lyfe" and "Ordinary Girl" and for her album to appear here later this year when it hits the net, or a retail store near you.

Casey Desmond: There is no way that I could have excluded the Boston based flame haired songstress Casey Desmond, specially sense she commented on my "musical hotness" post about her over on my music news blog (lol), and though its hard to not show some favoritism after that, I did feel the need to include her in this, her sweepingly haunting ballads "Boy Like You" and "Julia Buttlerfly Hill" which are almost too good for pop radio, in the sense they're crafted on a level that almost seems an insult to call them "pop music", think along the lines of Jewel on "Foolish Games" by done in a deeper haunting tone instead of that high operatic tone, truly a great talent waiting for the right song to hit.

Molly Venter: Molly Venter is one of those old school guitarist types, very Carly Simon meets the blues, her raspy voice reminds kind of a Stevie Nicks type vocally and emotionally, she is strong vocally which i love, but you can feel the passion in her voice as she sings, which i also love, she's got two songs in this, "Good Mother" and "Love Me Like You Mean It" which are both touching songs in their own way, though i must admit I like "Good Mother" a song about her mother's final days living with out knowing who she is or where she is, the more important of the two songs to listen too.

Selena Cross: Selena is an odd sort vocally, I do enjoy her lyrics and her music, and her haunting high end voice, but the reason i only included her song "warrior Spirit" is because I feel this is the kind of song she should be doing constantly, its got the right feel too it, the right tone, and that eerie back beat, I love that in my female vocalists, that spooky feeling you know? I love that to no end.

The Tina Jones Band: The Tina Jones Band are a group from Gabriola Island off the coast of Vancouver, a lovely little island shaped like a foot and known for eccentricly hot used bookstore owners and good music when it doesn't involve burn outs playing Bob Marley constantly, among the many non-marley related jam bands is The Tina Joens Band, who are listed here with two of their better songs "scream and shout" and "Sugar Bowl" of them Sugar Bowl being my favorite, they've sort of hard to think of a description for, they're not a blues band, they aren't a pop band, they're somewhere in the middle, kind of like the sort of band you'd find doing coffee shops and poetry slame if that makes sense, very listenable though.

Cindy Alexander: Cindy is a very pop sounding vocalist, her music is very polished and "radio ready" if you believe in the term, she's kind of generic in the sense she sounds a slight bit like atleast three or four other women out there today, though her lyrics are alot better, her two songs in this are "Soldier's Song" and "Immortal", hard to pick a favorite of them though, both excellent songs.

Danielle Miraglia: I had alot of trouble trying to pick what songs to include from Danielle, she has alot of songs that are just amazing, she's kind of good that way though, like an album of hers would be hard to find stand outs, because each song tops the one before it, I settled on the quirky but great "Hot Mom" and "You Don't Know Nothing" which could be about any bar in her homebase of Boston, I really enjoy her, would love to do a write up on her sometime.

Dinah D: Dinah D is a lovely big band style jazz singer from the same place as The Tina Jones Band, but with a completely different style, Dinah's style is rather sexy and slow, with a nice deep voice thats kind of like a refined Big Mama Thorton, Dinah is a joy to listen too, no matter the song, I had alot of trouble picking what to use from her, i picked "Grinning In Your Face" and "Renaissance Man" both lovely tracks with a nice sexy feel to them and insanely strong vocals. Hightly recommended.

The Drive: The Drive is kind of the definition of completely obscure rock, infact they aren't even together anymore, which says something about the rarity of their music, though why an all girl hard rock band where they all dressed like hot goth girls failed I've no idea, I rather enjoyed them, they had a rather stand out sound plus half their album was for free on the net on every site they promoted themselves on, i've even got videos by them infact, which for a band that just disappeared off the face of the net is pretty rare! Their style is kind of like an american twist on Nightwish, or maybe a deep voiced take on Evanessance with abit of that gritty Everlast style rock in there too, its really rather good and i'm amazed they're no more apparently, the songs "Be Bold Be Brave" and "Drip Trickle" are included in this set, I felt they were their best to reach out with.

Sarah B and the Gist: Finally we come to one of my favorites of all time, I know you hear that alot but this is 100% true, I love this band, I love delta blues mixed with rock as it is, but I love the sound they have, that old school sound mixed with Sarah's vocals are just so outstanding, I almost didn't put them in this in stead opting to put them in a thing all by themselves, but I felt this needed that little extra kick in the head. I included the songs "All I said" and "Angry Enough" because I felt they were the two best for a "sampler" like this, both songs are great, the band plays very well and sarah's vocals are strong and powerful the whole way though, it should be a delight to anyone who gives them a listen...

Bonus Track: Nadia Flijer: I chose to include a cover of a lovely Anna Nalik song called "Wreak of The Day" by a promising young singer out of Argentina named Nadia Flijer, sure she's a friend of mine and of fellow Surreal Soundz Staff member Tamara, but I feel she is worthy of some notice, she isn't yet where she can be, and she is still refining her sound, but i personally love her version of this song so much I felt the need to include it on here. Plus I'm a nice guy who believes in giving people a start.. so please enjoy..

Well thats it for volume one of this series, i hope you enjoy it and allow me to do some more in this series, I'm thinking next one will be obscure and forgotten singers sense this one kind of became an unknown artist free for all.

anyway here are the links if you're interested in more by these ladies, the download link is below...

Allison Crowe
Amy Speace
Nadirah X
Casey Desmond
Molly Venter
Selena Cross
The Tina Jones Band
Cindy Alexander
Danielle Miraglia
Dinah D
Sarah B and The Gist
Nadia Flijer

None for The Drive though, sorry :(

Download Link
Surreal Soundz Female Vocalist Compilation Volume One

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BC