Ladies, please!

by Dee in Editorials, Opinion Posts

So, let’s see…I love Sally, Carly, Daniela, Ella, Joni, Nina, Linda, Dusty, Dolly, Shelby, Bonnie, Amy, Kirsty and, of course, Emmylou!  

I love the depth of their voices, and how they strum and pluck and play and sing out their loves and losses, lost dreams, new and dashed hopes, new lives always hoped for, but never seen or realized.  

So, let’s just say that I don’t really get the latest crop of women…who just seem to be pretending to be the next and best singer-songwriter, since a lot of them just make my ears bleed. 

Nicole Atkins comes to mind. She and her band “The Sea” have been featured in a bunch of “American Express” commercials. Yes, she’s got this great big, soaring voice that may be more suited to Broadway than anything, but to these ears, she’s just not very, well…interesting.  

And, I think that’s a problem with most of these young women singer songwriters. They’re just trying too hard. 

Two years ago, my boyfriend and I went to see Leila Broussard, who was all of sixteen years old.  

Now, I believe that only Bonnie Raitt could pull off all of the moving, grooving and the flat out grinding, sexy moves, but Leila did. She strutted around the stage like Mick Jagger, pouting, throwing out her hips and her lips, and you know what?

It was the most uncomfortable I’d ever felt while watching a gig. Even worse, her entire band was full of forty-year-old men, egging her on to do more.

As a friend told me, “Oh, it’s rock and roll! Give her a break!”

Well, I didn’t, and I still can’t. The image in my mind of her mom selling CD’s in the lobby after the show and saying to everyone, “Isn’t she great? We were going to the “Knitting Factory” in New York, but they turned us down, those f***ers. We’ll find somewhere else to go for the CD release party, don’t you worry about it!” 

Well, I do worry. The last thing that I heard about Leila is that she and her mom are in LA somewhere, looking for the next best thing. 

Mom will be fine, I’m sure, but I’ve got to wonder about Leila.