Posted by lon [ 69.28.12.190 ] on March 21, 2006 at 22:07:39:
After just hearing a talk sjow about what being manly is which
is not worth discussing (the author pointed to Rumsfeld as
one of his good examples) the subject of male vocalists
deserves as much attention as we've devoted to women.
As contemporary performers, I know few of the Buster Poindexter
variety of lounge singers that are about today.
But I do have some favorite male vocalists each for different
reasons.
The best vocalist in Popular Music is Ray Benson of Asleep At
The Wheel. I don't mean Country and Western popular music, I
mean _all_ popular music regardless of category. This is not
to compare singers for their pyrotechnic ability, how loud or how
long or even how high or how low they can sing. The best means
quality of sound, resonance, delivery hey, what else is there?
In concert Benson always says (and I can't do this with
type on the screen) that what he does is Western music
or "(little small voice 'country') and WESTERN music," shouting
it out.
The Ray Benson sound is not forced in any way. And the fact
that I like Western Swing and swing music in general may have
something to do with it. Especially good is Ray Benson on
"House of Blue Lights" which I think was originally done
by the Mills Brothers. Randy Travers, George Straight and the
rest of the nasal crowd doing Country music are too embarrassing
to listen to.
So Ray Benson is the Popular Music vocalist with which to compare
others.
In jazz, there's a lot more to choose from. Like Georgie Fame
amongst others.
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