Oleta Adams -She plays jazz piano, she writes her own songs, she sings like nobody else. In this Mercury Record label site, you'll find tour info, real audio clips of her latest CD "Moving On" and a brief bio.[CBW]
Tori Amos - Some of this pages really scared me.The titles alone are eyebrow raising. This neat little page gets the job done, without the hype or slavering devotion.
Fiona Apple - takes a little while to load because of a big picture. Includes a chat room
Jann Arden - very nice opening graphic layout. Had to find sites devoted to this alternative folk singer with a very unique voice.
Carolyn Arends - Great on graphics but less stellar on amount of info about this Canadian inspirational folk up-and-comer.
Joan Baez - very simple, but it is the most complete and easily accesed site about the artist.
Erykah Badu - Has all the info you'd want, but lacks an explanation as to how she can walk upright with that giant [and obviously heavy] wrap over her hair
Pat Benatar -Maintained or at least approved of by Ms.Benatar herslf
Matraca Berg - Wonder of wonders to find a page devoted to this superb songwriter[including chatroom]. Any progressive sounding, female-recorded hit out of Nashville probably has her name on it.Her debut album was ranked as one of Time Magazine's " Ten Best Albums of 1997"
Bjork - One of the most comprehensive web sites[about any topic] I've ever seen!
Mary J. Blige - Has the coolest background I've seen in a while
Liona Boyd - She writes as well as plays classical guitar?
Toni Braxton - Cool page, but a little cultish for the mainstream
Meredith Brooks - very nice site. Has up to-date info and includes quite a few Real-Audio sound clips, notably two versions of the song "Bitch".
Mariah Carey - very devoted site
Mary Chapin Carpenter - a decent site.Links, discography, lyrics etc.Doesn't exactly do the multiple Grammy winner justice though.
Kate Ceberano - Australia's latest Dance mix sensation. Very professional looking site, with lots of info on the artist and her latest single.
Tracy Chapman - a comprehensive site, but a little crowded. Kinda pretentious too. The owner inserted a sound clip of himself saying hello and welcome. He has a neat-o accent though;) Includes a link to Lilith Fair on the page.
Cher - Focus on the "complete" Cher. Did I just say that?? It's official and has a big Sonny and Cher graphic on the first page Another bonus, it isn't maintained by a drag queen who got his big break doing impression of Cher
Holly Cole - The only site I could find devoted to this Canadian jazz performer.Sharp graphical design but a little skimpy on content.
Paula Cole - It's a low content Official site, but oddly one of the only sites I could find devoted to Ms. Cole.
Shawn Colvin - A nice little site with an easy to follow layout, and font big enough to read at a glance.
Sheryl Crow - Comprehensive sums it up
Taylor Dayne -Even features a Taylor Dayne desktop theme. I didn't stop to browse.
Ani Difranco - one of the least gushy, therefore best
Celine Dion - It's Official, usually a bad thing, but not in this case. There is even a section to let you expound about Celine's latest songs.
Eliane Elias -Little-known by the mass populace but well-revered by jazz aficionados of both male and female persuasions, Eliane Elias is a brilliant Brazilian jazz pianist who combines good looks with burning chops. She plays her *ss off. There aren't many websites devoted to this artist save for the record company's. But it's fairly mysterious, no portrait in the opening page, and fairly straightforward. The usual song list and bio.[CBW]
En Vogue - Java alert! But the helpful tips and scrolling ticker make this page a must visit for fans.
Enya - has some breathtaking WAV files of this New Age songstress in action.
Gloria Estefan - well-designed and complete page
Melissa Etheridge - If you can wade through the gushing intro the rest of the site is pretty good
Lara Fabian - She has a set of pipes that would make Celine Dion green with envy. Unfortunately this page about her fan club is totally in French. Only for the bilingual or francophone fan:(
Farmer's Daughter - the trouble I went through to get this link! Unfortunately the site is only devoted to their latest album "Makin' Hay" On the bright side it does have a sound clip of the sublime "Now That I'm On My Own" by this hip harmonizing, Canadian trio.
Ella Fitzgerald - A nice retrospective of her career.Highlights the different eras nicely.
Penny Flanigan - An indie June Cleaver-esque folksinger who maintains her own site
Aretha Franklin - The Queen of Soul doesn't rate a bigger webpage than the one supplied by "Wall of Sound"?!
Nanci Griffith - well, it bills itself as official but is a little too navel gazing to be broadly appreciated.
EmmyLou Harris - well laid out.Only site on the artist I could find[but don't quote me on that]
Whitney Houston - Least graphic intensive site I could find.Unlike others this page is a few degrees shy of an out and out shrine
Natalie Imbruglia - Nice page, if the Java doesn't screw up your computer
Indigo Girls - the best of a bunch of semi-sucky sites. Had a hard time finding even a mediocre page devoted to the Indigo Girls
Janet Jackson - Do one little video with an elephant and suddenly everyone wants to be your friend;)
Jale- girl band alert! Actually make that alternative rock , middle aged band alert. A page devoted to the edgy sounds of a group of guitar playin' Halifax, Nova Scotia women.
Jewel -Quick load. This index offers links to everything about Jewel from bio, polls, & guitar tabs to a picture gallery, poetry, and a Fanzine. Jewel is a woman musician who writes from a woman's viewpoint. This is one of the nicest cleanest-designed comprehensive Jewel sites around.[CBW]
Carole King - Once again, the only page to choose from. The hemp-looking background is a bit of a turn-off.
Chantal Kreviazuk - Just spelling the name is half the battle
Angelique Kidjo - Some call her the Diva of Afrofunk.
Patti LaBelle - Pretty skimpy, but the official page reads like an infomercial.This is the lesser of two evils
k .d lang - please put capitals in your name! She's still filed under "Country Western" on search engines so getting to a good site[this is] is harder than you would expect. Cyndi Lauper - I expected to have a hard time finding a page devoted to her, but the only hard thing was deciding which of the many was best.
Courtney Love - The least vicious of some pretty scare sites;)
Patti Loveless - She's another favourite of mine with a voice that will absolutely haunt you. This page is simple but gets the job done. The font is a little hard to read though.
Annie Lennox - one of the only sites I could find which was first and foremost about Lennox herself and not Eurythmics.
Loretta Lynn - once again the only site I could find devoted to this artist
Holly McNarland - A good site devoted to a seemingly angry young woman.
Natalie MacMaster - The only page I could find devoted to this Canadian fiddle diva
Madonna - Another example of an individual taste. This site has very current info on the "Material Girl" and her latest endeavours.It's updated frequently
Amanda Marshall - When I first started working on this page, I couldn't find an Amanda Marshall site anywhere. In the meantime this comprehensive one sprang up.And as the title says, it's "ulitimate"
Seiko Matsuda - She's Japan's pop darling. This site offers a choice of languages
Reba McEntire - Quick loading graphics and nice clean design, but Reba's hair is a bit bright.
Sarah McLachlan - no fly by nighter here! Very in depth web site. Part of the Sarah McLaclan web ring
Loreena McKennit - a fabulous link about this Celtic harpist/singer! It's part of a web ring and has a link to Mystic E-zine which is devoted to info on McKennit.
Natalie Merchant - front page has a large slow loading picture. Hard to tell who is the singer and who is the fan.Part of the Natalie Merchant web ring.
Bette Midler - good site, if the open mouthed front page photo doesn't scare you off;)
Joni Mitchell - Includes photos but is lengthy to load.Has a complete[no small feat!] discography too.
Alanis Morisette - She's raucous and a bit raunchy, but luckily this tribute site isn't
Stevie Nicks - As close friends and family already know, I want to be Stevie Nicks when I grow up;) This page is the most in-depth you will find, with picutres,links, trivia, sightings, discographies and more!
Bonnie Raitt - comprehensive info and polished design. Looks like someone put effort into it.
ratsy - Who is ratsy? I don't have a clue, but she[or her fans] bills herself as the next big folksongstress superstar[oxymoron alert!] so I decided to include her.
Lee-Ann Rimes - a tasteful and non gushy site devoted to this little *prodigy* Very clean design.
Linda Ronstadt - The best I could do. At least the person who runs this site doesn't think he/she *is* Linda Ronstadt[long story;)]
Diana Ross - Call me crazy but I get the impression that Ms. Ross actually runs this web sites. It's a little on the pretentious side.
Sade - Nice site, not overhyped.
Salt-N-Pepa - It was either this or the official site. This is much better
Carly Simon -This page even includes a carly Simon discussion group. Enough said
Laura Smith - Some people like her, others compare her voice to a cat down a well;) Take your pick
Lisa Stansfield -I love this British singer, from her lush features to her lush soulful voice. This site is arranged just like Lisa, arty, colorful, tilted like a scrapbook. Instead of boring word links to sections within this website, there are graphic icons, a book for her bio, sheets of music for lyrics, scattered photos for her gallery of shots from video/CD/magazine stills, newspaper for news about the singer, question marks surrounding a facial shot of her for a Q&A session, and much more. Definite must-see for fans and would-be fans of a smooth liquid funky sophisticated female singer.[CBW]
Barbra Streisand - very comprehensive and in depth look at this definite "Diva"
Tina Turner - has kind of obscure entry. Giant photo comes up and you must click on it to enter the actual page
Shania Twain - Okay,she's not everyone's cup of tea, but this page will provide a fix for dedicated fans. Very comprehensive with links to other sites, as well as everything you'd want to know about this country chanteuse.
SuzanneVega - Whoa! This site is huge, incredibly organized and artist endorsed[a sound clip of Vega saying hello and welcome]. A definite must-see if you're a fan!
Lucinda Williams -The only Lucinda Williams site I could find. A little confusing but does have a link to guitar tabs.
Vanessa Williams - Nice page. Includes filmography as well as a discography
Victoria Williams - Java applets will be the death of me yet;) The pastel colours must be designed to be PMS friendly
Trisha Yearwood - A woman whose star is definitely on the rise! Check out all the details at this site
I realized that this page may raise some questions, so here they are with the answers I'd give:
Why did you choose these particular artists? Why did you leave X[or anyone else] out?
The fact that someone doesn't appear on this list doesn't necessarily mean that I think they suck or don't have talent. There are artists I really wanted to include but couldn't find suitable web sites for.If you know of an artist I omitted and a web site for her, e-mail me and I'll try to include it
Why did you only use one link per artist?
~ I chose in my opinion the best link out there for each artist[including lyrics,news,updates,discographies etc]. The majority of these pages include links to other sites so it's possible to check out other pages devoted to the same artist.
Why are some summaries longer than others? What does CBW mean?
~ CBW stands for Carol Banks Weber, a friend of mine who wrote those longer reviews. All the incredibly brief ones are mine.
