Tori Amos (Kate with a Knife)

[nbc@inf.rl.ac.uk]

>From:   GTP10@phoenix.cambridge.ac.uk
>Subject: Tori Amos
>
> Anyway, today saw the release in the UK of an album by a singer/songwriter
> from North Carolina named Tori Amos. Apparently her label sent her over here
> to launch her career as it was thought that we Brits were more receptive to
> her particular style. She has been receiving a fair amount of media attention
> and every review or interview I have seen has made it very clear that her
> largest musical influence is Kate Bush.
>
>     Tori Amos "Little Earthquakes", East West Records #7567-82358-2
>
>      Geoff Parks

Welcome Geoff. I have also noticed that Tori Amos is getting a lot
of attention over here. I bought her single "Silent All These Years"
after hearing it on the radio and seeing a bit of the video on the
ITV Chart Show. I heard a track from the album on Saturday but could
not find it in the shops. She has a really strong voice which I am
sure will appeal to many Kate fans.

There are interviews with her in this months Q and this weeks' NME as well
as reviews of the album. Here are a few quotes from these.

"Being part-Scots and part-Cherokee, she has a yen for Celtic and Native
 American lore and legend"

"The flame-haired daughter of a half-Cherokee mother and a Methodist
 preacher father, she grew up in an environment rich in psycho-sexual
 conflicts and spiritual schisms. She was musically precocious, playing
 piano and writing her own songs at age four, and went on the road
 with her father playing Washington DC bars and hotels while still a
 kid" [Eat your heart out Kate!]

"She has a patently preposterous name, a Kate Bush fixation ..."

"Having been 'fermenting' in America for some time, without receiving
 major recognition, the idea appears to be to launch her in Europe where
 the folks might be more receptive to 'Kate Bush with a knife'."

"Lyrically, she's something special: a granite-like hardness merges with
 a journalist's eye for detail and compassion and frailty."

"Occassionally she'll crack into soprano like she's about to unleash
 a full, Bush-style "Heathcliffe! It's me!". But there are also moments
 of poetic over-reaching where she sounds like Julia Fordham doing Patti
 Smith with Manilow on piano."

"Little Earthquakes is disturbing, funny and sexy by turns. Amos does
 all this with the unmistakable stamp of a potentially great songwriter"

Should we start the Amos mailing list now ? :-)

Neil

--
Neil Calton                          UUCP:   ..!mcsun!ukc!rlinf!nbc
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