Phoebe Snow

Phoebe Snow's extraordinary debut album, one of the year's sleepers, has steadily climbed
the charts, despite minimal fanfare and no major tour. Born in New York in 1952 and
brought up in Teaneck, New Jersey, Snow emerges a prodigiously talented
singer/writer/acoustic guitarist in a jazz-rock idiom, with a highly distinctive alto. Snow's
singing is cool, yet not blasé; perfect enunciation coincides with spontaneous m... More >

This woman's languorous, swaying folk-jazz fusion is striking enough to suggest that her debut LP will become some sort of cult item. And it's better than most cult items. But her groove does not quite carry cuts as protracted as "It Must Be Sunday." Nor is it an encouraging sign that the most commercial lyric on a verbally distinguished album, "Poetry Man," is also the most fatuous. The plus is for encouragement, and for the graceful way her voice combines nasality and smoothness. (Grade: B+)