Pretty melodic voices: Lo-Fi Sugar, Silvia Torres, Astrud, Mindy Smith, & Dolly
“There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.” ~Duke Ellington
While normally I post about roots-oriented music, that is, anything with that stripped down sound in which you can clearly hear the tradition and culture from where it came, that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate electronic music. I used to love to dance to house music back in the mid-90s! I just had to share my friend Heather Pollack’s electronic/trance group Lo-Fi Sugar and their new song/video “The Night Divine”. She has such a pretty voice and the melody has stuck with me since I first heard it. This has been my song of choice in my shower as of late! It got me thinking about all the other pretty female vocals and songs with just a sweet, sweet melody. From the motherland of melody, Brazil, I just love the songs below by Silvia Torres and Astrud Gilberto. I also include a few from the folk/country realm by Mindy Smith and Dolly Parton (“Jolene” is one of the prettiest songs ever.) These offerings are of course just a drop in the ocean of melodic songs with pretty female vocals. Please post your favorites in the comments – I’d love to learn about what you’re listening to on repeat.
“The Night Divine” by Lo-Fi Sugar with vocals by the beautiful Los Angeles-based singer, Heather Pollack:
This next song was on played on repeat for many months in the rootnote CD player. I don’t know much information about this singer, Silvia Torres, other than she is from Brazil and the song, “Take Saravà,” was very popular in Brazil when it was first released, according to a friend who lived there for many years. I believe it came out in the late 90s.
A bossa nova song written by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, “Água de Beber”(“Water to Drink”) is now a jazz standard. Here it sung famously by Astrud Gilberto on her 1965 album, The Astrud Gilberto Album:
A pastor’s daughter, Mindy Smith became popular around 2004 with this haunting song, “Come To Jesus.”
Dolly Parton;s 1973 “Jolene” from the album of the same name, probably one of her most famous songs:
I absolutely love Silvia Torres, and glad you have found her
Yes, she’s got a beautiful voice!!
Much to my surprise, I really loved the Molly Smith one. This was a great blog – loved the theme.