Kate and Tori and all music

[violet@bbs.np1.com]

I've been a fan of Kate's (and a major one at that) for years.  I fell
for her the first time I ever heard her, because her music sounded like
mine.  I had been writing and singing at my piano since I was 6, but
never got anywhere.  I died before I could make it.  I died because all
my "friends" convinced me, at the age of 16, that my music wasn't
commercial.  I gave up.  My mistake.

Five, years later, I found Kate.  She turned things around.  Her music
was like mine, yet I'd never heard her before.  And SHE had made it.  I
had hope.  I started writing again.

Fast-forward another 6 years, and Tori released LITTLE EARTHQUAKES.  I
was blown away.  Interestingly enough, I heard of her in Homeground and
THAT'S why I bought the album.  I told my bass player that I had
something I wanted him to listen to, and I played Tori.  The first thing
he said was "Oh, is this your new demo?"  My God, what a compliment.
This after years of being compared to Kate myself.

Believe it or not, this has been leading to something.  My point is that
there are millions of people in the world, a great majority of them
women :).  Doesn't it make sense to anyone that some people are going to
have similar voices and timbre and vocal range?  A lot of the male
singers out there do.  But similar sound (on the surface) or not, the
people are NOT the same.  The messages are NOT the same.  Maybe Tori
does sound or seem a bit like Kate sometimes, but she did songs that Kate
did not.  She wrote songs that Kate would never or could never write
because they're different people with different experiences coming from
different places trying to make different points.  And vice versa.  Why
is one or the other good or bad?  Just let them BE as separate and
different people channeling ideas from the same cosmos.

I am not exactly the warmest, fuzziest person you could meet, but on
this topic, I wonder sometimes where the fans' kindness and
openmindedness has gone.  I'm sort of shocked at the truly nasty
responses of my fellow admirers on BOTH sides.  I'm especially
dissappointed, though, by the flamers in the Kate camp.  I can only
imagine that Kate really must not have touched you after all.  If she
had, you would be the first to realise that Kate herself admires many
fellow musicians.  Why can't you?  Kate herself dislikes any kind of
hate intensely.  Kate was picked on cruely by a lot of negative people.
She'd probably be the first to stand between you and Tori while you
throw stones.

Think about that.

In the Spirit of Kate,  Violet