Something struck me in the W interview about Joni's taste in music. It's where Joni mentions that she dislikes the sound of an ambitious voice like Streisand's. I thought that was interesting since so many of the great Canadian singers don't have ambitious voices, in fact some of them are arguably BAD voices, and I wondered if Canadians are pre-disposed to being (or liking) "unambitious" singers.
There's Leonard Cohen's gravel-road baritone, Neil Young's nasal whine and the two voices of Joni Mitchell: the helium voice and the smoke-stack voice. I wonder what it is about Canada that seems to spawn singers who are vocally "unambitious" - that is to say, untrained and more vocally raw. There are so many who could be placed in this category: Jane Siberry, Loreena McKennitt, Sarah McLachlan, Bryan Adams, Shania Twain, Alanis Morrisette. There are exceptions, most notably the ear-rupturing ranting of Celine Dion. Anne Murray and k.d. lang are other "crooners" of the north who also appear to be vocally ambitious. In any case, I just thought I'd raise that thought for people to ponder. -Andrew Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now
