57 - North Carolina, Tori Amos
Bringing up one of the singers of my young adult life ... college would not have been the same without Tori Amos.
North Carolina adopted the Nineteenth Amendment into their constitution on May 6, 1971.
Tori Amos was born to play and write music. She was replaying songs at the age of 2 after only needing to hear them one time, and composing music by the age of 3. Her honed ear was able to replay songs after hearing them one time. She describes feeling music as seeing a “light filament” when it has come clear to her. The chord progressions provide a “kaleidoscope” of images, and the more she focused, the more detailed the light became.
At five she was admitted to the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins where she studied until she was 11. Her “rebellion” of traditional music had her dismissed from the program, and she went her own way.
She began performing in bars and venues with her father’s support at thirteen, and by 1979 she began her career with her band “Y Kant Tori Read” referencing her inability to read written music. This is a common issue for idiot savant musicians, even recognized in the Beatles.
Her breakthrough came as a solo artist in the early 1990’s focusing on sexuality, feminism, politics, and religion. Turning this time she has released 15 albums and toured 14 times, listed fifth best touring act by readers of Rolling Stone in 2003. She has received five MTV VMA nominations, eight Grammy nominations, and is #71 in VH1’s 1999 - 100 Greatest Women of Rock.”
Why this woman?
I had the joy of being a 1990’s young adult. I attended high school in 1992-1996 and finished college in 2000. Being a college student in the late nineties, at a liberal private university, was filled with this genre of music. The halls of my dorms were filled with the Indigo Girls (I have seen them over 8 times, once in back to back nights with a 5 hour one way drive to Lawrence, KS for the second show), Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, Natalie Merchant, throw in a little Fiona Apple when you really want to get feisty ... and Tori Amos.
I never saw Tori live, but she was on the soundtrack of my life. I tended to learn the music that my friends played around me and absorb into that. High school was R&B. College was women singer / songwriters. The Lilith Fair, which I did attend at least twice, highlighted women singers and bands. Sarah McLachlan started the festival in frustration that concert promoters and radio stations refused to feature two female musicians in a row. Tori Amos didn’t play at the festival, but it was a capture of the music similar in genre of those years that was everything to me. I knew all the bands, and felt nestled into the soothing songs of life’s hard times and good.
Learning now about her natural and really kind of innate life with music filling her mind is so interesting to me. To see music as a manifestation in your mind, and the peace and presence it can bring to you is such a thrill.
Cheers to a woman that lived her passion and defined a generation.
North Carolina adopted the Nineteenth Amendment into their constitution on May 6, 1971.
Tori Amos was born to play and write music. She was replaying songs at the age of 2 after only needing to hear them one time, and composing music by the age of 3. Her honed ear was able to replay songs after hearing them one time. She describes feeling music as seeing a “light filament” when it has come clear to her. The chord progressions provide a “kaleidoscope” of images, and the more she focused, the more detailed the light became.
At five she was admitted to the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins where she studied until she was 11. Her “rebellion” of traditional music had her dismissed from the program, and she went her own way.
She began performing in bars and venues with her father’s support at thirteen, and by 1979 she began her career with her band “Y Kant Tori Read” referencing her inability to read written music. This is a common issue for idiot savant musicians, even recognized in the Beatles.
Her breakthrough came as a solo artist in the early 1990’s focusing on sexuality, feminism, politics, and religion. Turning this time she has released 15 albums and toured 14 times, listed fifth best touring act by readers of Rolling Stone in 2003. She has received five MTV VMA nominations, eight Grammy nominations, and is #71 in VH1’s 1999 - 100 Greatest Women of Rock.”
Why this woman?
I had the joy of being a 1990’s young adult. I attended high school in 1992-1996 and finished college in 2000. Being a college student in the late nineties, at a liberal private university, was filled with this genre of music. The halls of my dorms were filled with the Indigo Girls (I have seen them over 8 times, once in back to back nights with a 5 hour one way drive to Lawrence, KS for the second show), Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, Natalie Merchant, throw in a little Fiona Apple when you really want to get feisty ... and Tori Amos.
I never saw Tori live, but she was on the soundtrack of my life. I tended to learn the music that my friends played around me and absorb into that. High school was R&B. College was women singer / songwriters. The Lilith Fair, which I did attend at least twice, highlighted women singers and bands. Sarah McLachlan started the festival in frustration that concert promoters and radio stations refused to feature two female musicians in a row. Tori Amos didn’t play at the festival, but it was a capture of the music similar in genre of those years that was everything to me. I knew all the bands, and felt nestled into the soothing songs of life’s hard times and good.
Learning now about her natural and really kind of innate life with music filling her mind is so interesting to me. To see music as a manifestation in your mind, and the peace and presence it can bring to you is such a thrill.
Cheers to a woman that lived her passion and defined a generation.
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