10 best sounding FEMALE artists in MY vinyl collection! Vinyl Community Challenge!

[@terrywachter]

First two that came to mind: The 4AD girls. Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) and Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance)

[@MrJanfensten]

Of the top of my head. Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Feist (Leslie Feist), Hope Sandoval, Elisabeth Fraser, Lera Lynn, Lana Del Ray, Anna Calvi, Cat Power and Beth Gibbons ❤️

[@stevewestman7774]

Good stuff there.

[@amosperrine1909]

The Cecile McLoran Salvant Mack Avenue LPs, cut by Bernie, sound excellent, as does the recent Billie Holiday Verve Acoustic Sounds Series LP. The original Philo/Rounder Nanci Griffith LPs are also gems. As Craft does not say that the new box set was cut from the orginal tapes, I would take it that they are cut from digital files.

[@Onteo1]

Good picks Steve, just listened to Lana tonight. I’d like to add Dido ( not enough love in the VC) sinead O’Connor, Shirley Manson and Ivy.

[@stevewestman7774]

Very good picks my friend.

[@JNebs]

Good topic. I just did my take on it. I should've included Nina and you made me realize... I should add Fiona and Natalie to my "want list".

[@WyomingDave]

great selections,,steve!!

[@richardriley4415]

Female vocals is my favorite category of music. I guess I'm going to have to jump in.

[@stevewestman7774]

Jump!

[@KS-yy2fu]

If somone forgot to think about....Chan Marshall aka Cat Power, Marianne Faithful, Anna Calvi, Janis Joplin, and Nina Hagen ..cheers from Germany, Klaus

[@stevewestman7774]

Thanks Klaus. Good adds.

[@jasonarsenault3791]

I’m jumped onto this thread. Thanks Steve. Great stuff. Second person today that showed Natalie Merchant. Need to listen to her.

[@stevewestman7774]

Love Natalie. Tigerlily is amazing.

[@doodahdavesrecords4319]

Nice collection love Joni and Natalie best of all

[@stevewestman7774]

Thank you

[@vasquezovj65]

Top 10 in random order. Hope Sandoval, Deborah Harry, Annie Lennox, Hannah Reid of London Grammar, Natalie Merchant, Nora Jones, Chrissie Hynde, Etta James, Alanis Morissette, and Lana Del Rey. Bonus - Daniela Villarreal of The Warning. Thanks for the post, Steve.

[@eric2622]

Good choices all. A bit surprised you chose Marshall over Morissette as far as CanCon goes. Eilish would be high on my list.

[@michellerini9276]

THIS WAS A GREAT ONE! THANK YOU. You are correct we do not talk about all the great female artist it is always male dominating groups and singers. Court & Spark one of my desert island LPs, Peoples Party what a great tune.

[@stevewestman7774]

Thanks Michelle. So many amazing female artists. They need to be talked about more. People’s party so good. Thanks for watching.

[@Wreckords-Marcel]

I personally would put Nina pastel blues over I put a spell on you. The B side of pastel blues just gives me goosebumps everytime and just so emotional. Especially with strange fruit and my fav Sinnerman. Both are excellent excellent albums and acoustic sounds did a great job!

[@stevewestman7774]

Yes. Agreed. Thanks for sharing.

[@onsenkuma1979]

Assuming you don't mean the greats of yesteryear (Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Aretha or Astrud Gilberto)? Some personal favourites over the years: Elizabeth Fraser, Dionne Warwick (for her definitive Bacharach sides), A Girl Called Eddie (Erin Moran), Rosalie Cunningham, Norma Winstone, Laura Nyro, Bjork, Kate Bush, Karen Carpenter, Roberta Flack. I was a big fan of Grace Slick back in the day, and I'd like Monica Zetterlund's version of 'Some Other Time' to be played when I've shuffled off this mortal coil (not just yet though)...

[@stevewestman7774]

I mean your own personal faves.

[@NickP333]

Great choices, Steve. I’m a big fan of Fiona’s music. I picked up the VMP version of “Extraordinary Machine” which sounds fantastic. That record made my top 10 records listened to most, along with Tigerlily and Pixies’ “Surfer Rosa”, which had a female bass player / vocalist in Kim Deal.

[@stevewestman7774]

Thanks Nick. Great picks.

[@jameshogg11]

Suggestion for a future video series or one off: Audiophile Wives! 🙂 Would love to hear what Mrs Westman, Mrs Maslov, Mrs Goss etc. make of the collecting and the time/money you invest in it and how it impacts other areas of life ☺ Make it happen! 🙂

[@louisperlman8030]

It’s hard for me to compile a definitive Top 10, but Eva Cassidy and Alison Krause would be the top two. Dreamboat Annie is a great album, Little Queen is also worth mentioning, but I’m not thrilled with the albums after that. Olivia Newton John’s Have You Never Been Mellow was the second album I ever purchased, and it is still amazing today. Evert song is at least good, and the album has great flow. My wife’s favorite album of all time is Carol King’s Tapestry, so it joins the list. I’ll close with Aimee Mann’s Mental Illness, the album itself is more pleasant than the title.

[@ricefieldrecords]

1 Lydia Pense 2 Bonnie Bramlett 3 Genya Ravan 4 Laura Nyro 5 Maggie Bell 6 Kathi McDonald 7 Big Mama Thornton 8 Koko Taylor 9 Sandy Denny 10 Miwa Yoshida

[@andysmusicden]

No clue who my best sounding female artists are, I don’t listen to music that way. But some of my favourite female singers are Irma Thomas, Etta James, Ann Peebles, Amy Lavere, Nina Simone, Shannon McNally, PJ Harvey, Candi Staton, Jessie Mae Hemphill and Lauryn Hill. Since you also mentioned a female jazz musician… here are some favourite modern ones with the right feeling: Anna Högberg, Elin Forkelid, Linda Fredriksson, Muriel Grossmann and Nala Sinephro.

[@felipeopazomusic]

Fun challenge Steve!. If we're talking about best sounding albums, I would immediately say Diana Krall, almost all of her albums were recorded and mixed by the legendary Al Schmitt at Capitol, and they sound incredible, even on the regular Verve editions ("Love Scenes" is one example), and I also like Diana Krall as an artist and musician a lot. Of course the Kirsten Edkins album also sounds amazing. Other than that, I'd mention my favorite female singer, Ella Fitzgerald, her late 50s and early 60s catalog needs to be available on audiophile editions!!. Dinah Washington has some great albums -that also sound great-, "Swingin' Miss D" (Speakers Corner) and "For Those In Love" (Vinyl Me Please) are two examples. On the Soul/Pop side, of course Aretha Franklin is one of my favorites, and her late 60s-early 70s catalogue is getting some great reissues, specially from Vinyl Me Please. I'd love to compare the new Mofi Whitney Houston album with a japanese copy from the 80s I own, it's a great sounding record. Among my favorites, Chaka Khan is another singer in need for good audiophile reissues, both from her work with Rufus and her solo career. Finally, a current female fronted band, Tedeschi Trucks Band -lead by singer/guitarrist Susan Tedeschi and her husband, the amazing Derek Trucks-, they tend to record to tape, and their albums sound pretty good in general. Best wishes from Chile Steve!

[@celtic-audiophile]

So agree, have every album on vinyl, and saw her twice at the RHA in London

[@jodygoeler586]

Nanci Griffith, Iris McDermitt, Mary Black, Eva Cassidy are on my list. Add Brandi Carlyle for sure. Of course Joni, Ella and Billie H.

[@stevewestman7774]

Yesssss

[@joeytavarez2093]

Dinged up corners on that Fiona album!!

[@stevewestman7774]

Right. Came like that.

[@WyomingDave]

that norah jones album is great!

[@scottmackenzie6699]

No particular order: (sadly most of my favorites are either missing the vinyl treatment or just hard to find or I need to get on it. These albums I have on CD) Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul Judy Garland - Judy at Carnegie Hall Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour The Sundays - Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (CD) Joni Mitchell - Blue Brenda Russell - Get Here Blondie - Greatest Hits Bic Runga - Beautiful Collision (CD) Aimee Mann - I’m with Stupid (CD) Etta James - At Last (CD)

[@stevewestman7774]

Love it.

[@Bootradr]

(1 & 2) Glad you had Anne and Nancy Wilson aka Heart in there and Stevie Nicks too. They are definitely three, even though we'll say two since it's two bands, of my favorite female artists. It's kind of funny because I paid about $40 for the Bella Donna 2xLP RSD 2022 release I got. But it had a lot of surface noise on it. The ultrasonic clean did not help. And I just repurchased a copy on eBay that is still sealed for $22 days ago :-) I kind of wish I hadn't got the first, noisy, and defective one now. (3) Back in 2007 I came across a concert on cable of an artist that has become my favorite female vocalist ever. Her music is 100 times better live than it ever is on studio releases. But the steel releases are great too. She changes things up also live and I like that in bands. I've never seen any Canadians or Americans doing vinyl discussions mention Feist. Leslie Feist has a voice that hits home with me. Everybody saw the stupid iPhone commercial that made her big with that song 1, 2, 3, 4. I don't personally care for that song. Her best music in my opinion was between 1999 and 2011. I haven't been quite as impressed with the music in her two most recent releases. But I know that the live tour she's on now, which hasn't come through Dallas/Fort Worth since 2011, is getting rave reviews. (4) Janis Joplin is one of my all-time favorites. So unique and incredible and I can only imagine what music she would have made later had she lived. (5) One artist I really like vocally, but she doesn't fit into my normal category of things I would like, is the vocals of Sara Bareilles. She's got a really great voice and her debut album was good too. She's another artist that sounds so much better live than in the studio. I kind of lost interest in her most recent stuff but I still got a lot of it. (6) Pat Benatar is another artist I really like. She's come out with some really great songs starting in the late '70s. I'm a much bigger fan of her 1970s - 1980s music. And surprisingly, like Ann and Nancy, she can still sound just as good today. It's probably been 5 years since I've seen her but Pat and her husband still put on a good show. (7) I like the vocals of Amy Lee as well. She's the singer for Evanescence which has been a really good band since the early 2000s. She's really got the vocal cords to belt out a song forcefully or sing a ballad more softly. (8) I love the vocal range on Deborah Harry aka Blondie! I'm not really into punk music but there's something about her music that transcends the punk and goes into the etho with her use of her voice. She's got an incredible range and I think I first heard of her in 1980. And then when Rapture came out, I started looking back at her earlier music. She really sounded good, even though not every album was a winner later, all the way up through 1999 I know. I think I probably don't have any records ever after that time frame? But I'm not really sure she's done anything either since about then? (9) Florence Welch, an artist I never listen to until about 2 years ago, is the singer of Florence + The Machine. She's got a pretty awesome voice that I like. I had heard it back around 2007 on that same musical program I'd seen that Feist concert on. At the time I liked Florence's voice but never really gave it a chance or got into the music. But as of 2 years ago, my opinion has changed. She's able to use her voice in ways that are very interesting and intriguing. (10) This last one I almost hesitate to add because she's not really what I consider a favorite vocalist. But you did say favorite female singers too. I just got my first LP of Betty Davis, a 1970s funk type artist, just yesterday. I'd seen a documentary on her on KZbin and her music and band peaked my interest. She just passed away I believe in 2020. Her three or four albums or near impossible to get or at least get at a decent price or in good shape. I've been looking for a few years for one and within the last 2 weeks I saw that I could pre-order her albums because they're being re-released. I have to be honest and say that I haven't opened the album yet but I'm going to listen to it after I hit send. I guess it's just titled Betty Davis and it's got an OBI even though it's not a Japanese import. I never had heard of her before when I was younger. Of course she did Mary Miles Davis and then she divorced him and got out of the music industry for pretty much the rest of her life. I could go on about female singers because I love a good female vocalist! I didn't even realize how much I enjoyed good female vocals until I was looking at my bootleg and CD/record collection back in the late '90s. I had a lot and it kind of dawned on me that I really loved great female fronted bands and singers. Anyhow, I've rambled on enough. I enjoyed your video Steve! You gave me a few to check out in the future. Brian in Fort Worth 🎶

[@mden2490]

I am quite surprised that Sade did not get a mention?? How about Linda Ronstadt ? As much as I tried I personally could not get myself to like the singing style of Norah J. or Joni Mitchell?

[@Darrin.Crawford]

Drinking game!! Steve switches from the word "Hot" to "Incredible".....LOL!! Just busting your balls Steve! Great list Steve!! ,,,,INCREDIBLE!!

[@stevewestman7774]

Thanks. Glad I can get everyone drunk.

[@Darrin.Crawford]

@@stevewestman7774 Don't get everyone drunk...not from me..haha!! ONLY if I present the game .I'm not a fan of Natalie Merchant but I respect your positioning. You're sooo NOT going to like my response with Nathan....but in the end?? My opinion doesn't matter. Peace Brother!!!!

[@thebuxtstopshere]

Dreamboat Annie is seminal.. thanks Steve..

[@stevewestman7774]

Soooooo good. Absolutely brilliant album.

[@austinhunt4260]

Chelsea Wolff and Shirley Manson are the only two female vocalists in my collection. I’ve considered Ella and Nina.

[@stevewestman7774]

Thank you.

[@SAGNI0971]

Suzanne Vega is top tier and those original pressings sound fantastic ! And yes, Fionna Apple’s ‘Tidal’ is one of the great debuts-

[@stevewestman7774]

Vega is stellar.

[@fizzlebomber674]

you got two of ten right, at least. Sade, stevie, and florence and the machine...then everyone else can get in line. You had Nina and Stevie, 20 percent success rate.

[@stevewestman7774]

Batting .200 in baseball gets me at least $2 mill a year. I’ll take it.

[@jameshogg11]

The only female vocalist LP I have that I'd describe as 'audiophile' quality is my Nina Simone LP 'Little Girl Blue' from Pure Pleasure Records. Also enjoy the 2 x Samara Joy albums.

[@davidbishop1570]

Steve, thank you for not including any Adele. A couple of female performer I enjoy are Lizz Wright and Cassandra Wilson. Cheers, Dave on Vancouver Island.

[@stevewestman7774]

Thanks Dave. Hope the island is treating you well. Good picks. I was at Horne Lake Caves last year. Just incredible. Have you ever checked it out?

[@davidbishop1570]

@@stevewestman7774 Steve, I have not done the Horne Lake Caves but now they have been added to my list of places to visit. I am not listening to vinyl at the moment as my Clearaudio Titanium cartridge has gone off for a re-tip. A lot cheaper than doing the trade in to Clearaudio as they only give you 25% of the cost of a new cartridge with the trade in of the old. I was staggered to see that the new price of this cartridge is $16,000. I guess that is why it sounds so good. As A result I am playing a lot of CDs. I came across this gem from a Canadian girl that you do not hear to much about these days; Catherine MacLellen, 'Water in the Ground', good songs and she has a lovely voice, worth checking out if you are unfamiliar with this record.

[@stevewestman7774]

@@davidbishop1570 thanks David. You need to go there. Yes that’s very pricey. Check out my live show today. We are reviewing the Canadian made Pure Fidelity turntables with their owner. Will be interesting.

[@davidbishop1570]

@@stevewestman7774 Thanks Steve, I will be watching.

[@garyrobinson8665]

Good stuff. My picks would be. Joni Mitchell Hejira. Fiona Apple Fetch The Boltcutters. Tori Amos Little Earthquakes. Kate Bush Hounds Of Love. Sade Love Deluxe. Nina Simone Love At Town Hall.

[@ericwong6531]

Here are my favorites. Some on my list will over lap with some on your list Steve. Unforgettable with Love Natalie Cole. For Karen Carpenter The Carpenters Collection 2 LP Set. Kirsten Edkins Shapes & Sound. Norah Jones Come Away With Me. For Christine McVie Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie. Olivia Newton John Physical. Stevie Nicks Bella Donna. For Ella Fitzgerald Ella and Louis. Blondie Parallel Lines. Vanessa Williams Comfort Zone. Janet Jackson All For You.

[@stevewestman7774]

Excellent. Great list.

[@davidmartin1455]

Surprised you didn't mention "Tracy Chapman" her 1st 2 LPs sound amazing.

[@stevewestman7774]

I have them both. Yes amazing. I wanted to be a bit less obvious lol.

[@bpalpha]

Allison Krauss? Shelby Lynne? Patty Griffin? Annie Lennox...

[@stevewestman7774]

Yes.

[@celtic-audiophile]

Natali Merchant, keep your cover, my top female artist album of 23

[@stevewestman7774]

Good pick.

[@raynewcomb337]

Hey Steve, ever heard of Alison Krauss?

[@stevewestman7774]

Absolutely

[@mrhoffame]

Fun thread my friend. I just posted a response :)

[@stevewestman7774]

Amazing. Will check it out. Thanks

[@matthewhadtrespasses4195]

My favorite is Laura Pausini!!

[@stevewestman7774]

❤️

[@davidpetersen7091]

Nice choices. Mr. Pete----------> aging hippie

[@stevewestman7774]

Thanks Mr. Pete

[@vinyljoe1940]

Check out Olivia Rodrigo she's currently my favorite female artist

[@stevewestman7774]

Yes have her album as well. Just had to limit it to 10.

[@316RC]

Add Malia to the list.

[@alitabbal9529]

Nice collection, no Diana Krall?😉

[@stevewestman7774]

Yes on CD.

[@alitabbal9529]

@@stevewestman7774 great you should try Live in Paris great recording and wonderful piano playing from Diana🎶

[@kurtzcol]

wheres your carpenters albums ,cant have a list like this without karen carpenter,the ladies from abba as well ,hope sandoval from mazzy star,sinead oconnor,delores o rirdan,margo timmins from cowboy junkies

[@stevewestman7774]

These are ones I enjoy. I have more then 10. But wanted to keep it to 10.

[@ericwong6531]

Surprised that you did not mentioned any Ella Fitzgerald albums.

[@stevewestman7774]

There are so many. Needed to limit it to 10 of my fave.

[@ericwong6531]

@@stevewestman7774 Okay noted! My list will come a little later.

[@ericwong6531]

Does Carpenters count?

[@stevewestman7774]

Yes. Of course

[@ianmelville452]

No Aretha? Seriously?

[@stevewestman7774]

I know 😢😢

[@JeffersonDD]

Why are you limiting the list to the oppressive gender-normative ones!! J/k pretty good list - for the patriarchy 😂

[@stevewestman7774]

🤔

[@jerryandlisa27]

For me it has to be Ella Fitzgerald, Norah Jones, Peggy Lee and last but not least jacintha

[@nickvanr.8584]

Jacintha nr 1 the rest follow