This was aired on Music Choice. Music Choice is kind of like a radio station that gets broadcast into your tv by a satellite dish.

Jo Mayder : So who studied piano at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore from age 5 to 11 and was the daughter of a Methodist minister? If you said Tori Amos you were right. Last month she released her fourth solo album called From the Choirgirl Hotel. And when Tori releases an album it's an event among her legions of fans called "Toriphiles". Starting with 92's Little Earthquakes, through 94's under the Pink and the highly acclaimed harspicord ladden Boys for Pele in 96, Tori Amos keeps moving into new uncharted territory.
On her latest album, written and produced by her, there were two driving forces at play. Musically, she recorded most of her piano and vocals live with a drummer, programmer, and other players instead of just herself and the piano to create a new rythmic richness, not heard on her previous albums. And she's still refering to her piano as a she.

Tori : It's very different what they add. They're such uniqui players, and from such different worlds. It's really based around a band now. The piano has accepted she's not in the front anymore. She knows she has to share the stage. And she's doing it. She's doing it...

Jo Mayder : On her latest album, Tori went into new lyrical territory by calling on the raw emotion following her miscarriage. Ranging from anger to a new appreciation for life, From the Choirgirl Hotel is the most complex and compelling to date for Tori Amos. She's described it as "not a victim's record. It deals with sadness, but it's a passionate record. Passion for life, passion for the life force, and a respect for the miracle of life." This is the first single.

(The play the album version of Spark)

Jo Mayder : That's Spark, from the the just released Tori Amos album From the Choirgirl Hotel. We'll here more from it in just a minute, but let's go back to her 92 debut album Little Earthquakes. Reminiscent of Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush, at the time no one knew how to peg her. Should her videos be played on Mtv's Alternative Nation, or VH1? Somehow, through college radio and Tori's unforgetable stream of conscious interviewing stlye, Little Earthquakes sold 600,000 copies. Let's listen to Winter

(The play the album version of Winter)

Jo Mayder : That's Winter from Tori Amos' 92 debut album Little Earthquakes. I'm Jo Mayder and you're listening to the Atlantic Records Show exclusively on Music Choice. This month we're featuring songs from Tori's new album From the Choirgirl Hotel, written and produced by her.
One intriguing song on the new album is a song called Raspberry Swirl. I asked Tori what that very provocative song is about.

Tori : Sometimes I feel like I become the male figure for my girlfriends. It's unfortunate that I can't be a man because I think I'd be in love with all of them, but it's not my inclination. This song is about "things are getting desperate when all the boys can't be men, everybody knows I'm her friend, everybody knows I'm her man." They love it when I sing it to them.

(They play the album version of Raspberry Swirl)

Jo Mayder : That was Raspberry Swirl from the new Tori Amos album From the Choirgirl Hotel. You're listening to the Atlantic Records show exclusively on Music Choice. More from the new Tori coming up, but first here she is in a rare appearance with someone who also rarely duets, Robert Plant. This is from Encomium, the tribute album to Led Zeppelin released in 95. Tori's coment on the collaboration, "Working with Robert was a hoot, I almost wore my confirmation dress just for old times sake."

(They play Down by the Seaside from Encomium)

Jo Mayder : That was Tori Amos and Robert Plant playing Down by the Seaside from Encomium the Led Zeppelin tribute album. We'll leave with a song from Tori's new album that Rolling Stone Magazine called the center of the album, and quote, "is her fluid answer to the Smashing Pumpkin's 1979. A perfect memory of pop energy past." Recalling the JFK assination, it's Jackie's Strength

(They play the album version of Jackie's Strength)