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. :-)