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• Friday, December 14, 2007 05:49 PM

  Amy Wino

  First off: I can't stand her nasal pseudo retro vocals -"Rehab" is like a nail on a blackboard, its brainbashing chorus repeating over and over and over.....

  As for her looks and clothes, well, let's not even go there and it's ultimately not relevant.

  Regarding so-called "blue eyed soul": soul isn't a color thing - that's an insult to black people mostly. No one would dare say that a black person is being pretentious for singing opera at the Met. Some of the finest singers of our age have been black and some have been white. Dusty Springfield is the finest female white soul singer hands-down to give just one example. Aretha Franklin of course is the greatest black soul singer. Eva Cassidy was a natural, very versatile and was amazing at both soul and folk. Joss Stone bores me, Nikki Costa screams a bit too much but is pretty cool and Prince likes her so that's cool in itself. Janis Joplin was also screamer but had a unique and natural talent. Some of our finest opera singers have been and continue to be black women.

  It's a culture thing, not a question of color: put a white child in a black church and she/he will be singing gospel songs and develop a certain vocal style. Put a black child in a Lutheran church in Minnesota and she/he will be singing hymns which can be quite beautiful but sound very different than gospel songs.

  Amy Wino bores me to tears and I don't care if her pain is real or a PR gimmick: her voice makes my skin crawl. The fact that she is nominated for 6 Grammy awards says all we need to know about award shows.

  You want to hear what a natural unpretentious kick ass versatile singer sounds like who happens to be white? Check out JOANNA COTTEN (not Cotton) from Arkansas who is going to be a huge name if her major label doesn't screw things up for her. Watch her incredible live acoustic set of her two songs "Humble Town" and "High Maintenance" and you will be blown away like I was last night when I came across her music on the web. She's the real deal.

  And no, I don't work for Warner Bros. - I'm just a huge new fan. And I'm white, female and half-Jewish in case anyone was wondering.

  JOANNA COTTEN:

  www.wbrnash.com/joannacotten/tv/ (cut and paste please)

  —Anonymous
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