Every week on Fred Hystere we choose a new theme to go along with our Daily Classics. This week features 4 of Fred’s favorite vocalists of all-time and we kick it all off with Miss Chateleine herself, k.d. Lang.

k.d. Lang has one of the best singing voices in the history of music. She may have a butch exterior but, man, her voice is about as feminine as you can get and has an incredibly soothing lullaby effect on even my most stressful of moments.

I’m not going to say much about k.d. in this post, because I want to make sure I leave the good stuff for my feature on her next week as my Artist Of The Day. But I will say that, out of every female artist I listen to, no one has gotten me through tough times more than she has.

Her songs bring out the romantic in me and make me yearn for moonlit walks on the beach in the French Riviera with someone I love. In fact when Lang’s album, Ingenue, came out back in the early 90s, I was in Calais, France with my family on vacation. While the rest of the family went out for breakfast, I decided to stay at home. I cranked up Ingenue while taking a shower and proceeded to slip while waltzing and singing Miss Chatelaine at the top of my lungs. Although I did hit my head pretty hard, I remember continuing to sing like a fool while in pain on the floor of the bathtub.

k.d. has a new album out and it’s absolutely wonderful. I’ll be writing about it next week, but in the meantime check out her gorgeous hit Miss Chatelaine.

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Here at Fred Hystere, we love themes. Every week we choose a different theme for one of our categories and this week we’ve decided to dedicate our week of Daily Classics to ladies of Lilith Fair. In another life Fred was a lesbian and has always had a huge obsession with female singer-songwriters. Today, he features Lilith Fair Queen, Sarah McLachlan.

Listen, I’ve never been Sarah McLachlan’s biggest fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve always been a casual fan that’s purchased every one of her albums since her classic Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. As a person, I think she’s basically amazing, even if she does have an odd penchant for collecting limbless animals. Her music has certainly helped me through terribly rough times and “Good Enough” is one of my all-time favorite songs.

Like most fans, I’ve been a tad disappointed with Sarah’s music ever since Fumbling came out. That said, she’s still written some amazing pop songs since then, even if they’ve all seemed to lack the same ethereal mysteriousness of earlier recordings. Which brings me to her massive 1997 album, Surfacing.

If Jagged Little Pill can lay claim to a whole new era of angry women, Surfacing was the album that they all listened to after they’d calmed down a little. Need proof? Jagged Little Pill sold over 15 million copies in the US alone, while Surfacing sold about 10 million a few years later. As sick as I became of Sarah’s singles being played literally every 5 minutes on the radio back in 1997, I would give ANYTHING to hear her on the radio now instead of the stupid hip-hop infused grossness currently polluting the airwaves.

During Adia, one of the monster hits released from Surfacing, Sarah laments “There’s no one left to finger..”….exxxxxxxxxcept herself. I mean is there really any other logical explanation for the face she’s making on the single cover for Adia? Cmon..

Watch Adia below.

http://www.sarahmclachlan.com/us/home

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Here at Fred Hystere, we love themes. Every week we choose a different theme for one of our categories and this week we’ve decided to dedicate our week of Daily Classics to ladies of Lilith Fair. In another life Fred was a lesbian and has always had a huge obsession with female singer-songwriters. Today, he features one of the most underrated artists of all-time, Fiona Apple.

So I have a funny story about Fiona Apple. As I’m sure many of you can imagine, I have always been known as a prankster. The list of pranks and jokes I’ve played on friends and family is legendary. However, when you’re as big of a prankster as I am, sometimes it gets difficult for people to know whether you’re kidding or not and my best friend Rosie knows this better than anyone else.

I’ve always had a thing for discovering new artists and I think I’m pretty good at it. Back in High School I was known among my closest friends for the amazing mix tapes I would make featuring new artists and I can’t tell you how many people used to say to me “Oh my god! You were right about _______! You loved them before anyone else did.”

One person I used to always talk about new artists with was my best friend Rosie. She and I always shared a huge passion for female singer-songwriters (although her taste went down the Ani DiFranco path; which was just a liiiiiiitle too much vagina power for me). When Fiona Apple debuted with her first single, Shadowboxer, barely anyone noticed…except me! I rushed out to buy her debut album, Tidal, and called Rosie to tell her. Which is when the following conversation happened..

ME: Omg! You have to hear this new artist I just discovered.

ROSIE: Yea? What’s her name?

ME: Fiona Apple!

ROSIE (Laughing): You’re such a liar. What’s her real name?

ME: Omg I swear! That’s her name!

ROSIE: I don’t believe you; that’s totally a name that you made up to try and play a joke on me so that you can tell everybody “Guess what? Rosie thought there was a singer named Fiona Apple! Bahahahahahaha!”

ME: No, seriously, I swear! That’s her REAL name! How bout this: I swear to god on the holy bible that her real name is Fiona Apple.

ROSIE: You don’t believe in god; so what good is that going to do me?

ME: Fine, don’t believe me..You’ll see!

*Fast forward a few months when “Shadowboxer” became a huge hit on MTV and everywhere…aaaaaaaaaaaaand Fiona Apple became a worldwide sensation*

ROSIE: I hate you.

ME: Told ya!

Watch Shadowboxer below.

http://www.fiona-apple.com/

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Here at Fred Hystere, we *love* themes. Every week we choose a different theme for one of our categories and this week we’ve decided to dedicate our week of Daily Classics to ladies of Lilith Fair. In another life Fred was a lesbian and has always had a huge obsession with female singer-songwriters. Today, he features hairy armpit queen, Paula Cole.

Don’t ask me why, but I have always been totally obsessed with Paula Cole’s 1997 hit “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?” Knowing my music taste, as you probably do by now, I’m sure it’s not a shock to you just how much I love this song and I’m sure many of you are fucking cringing at the thought of having to relive the Paula’s 2^nd most overplayed single. But that’s ok..

*Cue corny metaphors*

Cole came galloping (see what I mean) into our lives back in 1997 with Where Have All The Cowboys Gone, which began her 2 year plus stranglehold on radio stations around the country. The song was SO overplayed and I literally just learned that the lyrics are not “Where is my Lawnmower Man” but instead “Where is my Marlborough Man” (which makes WAY more sense considering I always wondered why a ‘lawnmower man’ would have a ‘shiny gun’).

Being the huge feminist that I am, I loved this period in music history so much because of how much it celebrated women and their rights. Today, with organizations like Planned Parenthood in jeopardy thanks to ignorant politicians, there couldn’t be a better time for the next revolution of female singer-songwriters kicked off by artists, like Paula, a decade ago.

There’s no denying Cole’s voice is gorgeous (even if I thought my ears would never stop bleeding after hearing I Don’t Want To Wait for the 453546346^th time) but, sadly, she didn’t really like being in the spotlight and retreated away for years before finally beginning to release new albums a few years ago. At least we’ll always have the Armpit Queen’s pensive hit “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone” to remember her by. Check out the video below.

http://paulacole.com/