Originally posted by znsho
Who wins, and why?
Both great but I vote for Joan - not trained, but that allows her natural beauty and true feelings shine through.
But there was another J, Joni. She had it all. Not exactly a folk singer except for her early work but brilliant beyond either Ju or Jo. She is also a pretty good painter. Her body of work comprises a lot of changes of style but always brilliant. Ju and Jo were singers and only wrote a handful of songs. Joni was an innovator on all her instruments, dulcimer, guitar, keyboards. My favorite concert was bootlegged on a very early Rhino records tape, live in Canada, not sure where, but around 1968, guitars, dulcimer, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor. Great concert. No backups, no band, just the two of them putting on a great show, both brilliant songwriters. There are websites devoted just to Joni Mitchell GUITAR TUNINGS. BTW, don't get me wrong, I love all three of them, have most of their albums. I first heard Joan live in 1960 from a tv show in Boston, I was stricken in an instant. In that era there were several more female folk singers of note, Odetta, Carolyn Hester, Judy Bright, Judy Henske, Hedy West, Jean Ritchie ( the real deal), Jean Redpath (scottish), Barbara Dane, Malvina Reynolds, (Little houses on the hilltop, little houses made of ticky tacky.....), Mary Travers of Peter Paul and Mary, I always heard conviction in her voice. Ronnie Gilbert of the Weavers, a really great singer from the group that started it all, June Tabor and Maddy Prior from the UK. Peggy Seeger, younger sister of Pete Seeger, wrote " I was gonna be an engineer" among others, great banjo player. Norma Waterson, wife of Martin Carthy, mother of Eliza Carthy, an up and coming folksinger/songwriter. Evelyn and Bob Beers, the Beers Family, from Florida, lots of great songs, Dunbartons Drums is one of songs they perform. Etta Baker, great guitar player of the Piedmont tradition, just died at the age of 93. Then there are the blues ladies, of which Etta was one, like Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, of course they were famous before the 1960's.