Record Review: Teresa Michalina Carousel

I am very, very familiar with the piano stylings of Tori Amos; it was this youthful obsession, when I was coming of age, which was also right around the same time she was breaking down the walls of popular music. No one can deny her challenging of convention when she sang a song like "Me and A Gun;" it was stark, loaded, and a total slap across the face of the male dominated, testosterone-centric world we lived in. While many would argue that this is still the same America that we live in today, no one can deny that the floodgates of popular music helped challenge convention, opening doors for everyone; from average women to lesbian talk show hosts to speak their mind; not that many of them needed the permission. It was this synthesis and synergy which only comes along once in a great while, helping to usher in what took place which many will fondly remember in days hence.

The work of Amos and others around that same time led me to the work of subsequent female vocalists whom I still respect and enjoy. Sarah McLachlan, Shawn Colvin, kd Lang, Cheryl Crow, Pink; the walls break down in my own mind and I often forget where this initial inspiration began and where top 40 radio takes over. What I'd failed to see, at the time, was that Colvin and Lang had been pressing vinyl since the late 80's; Sheryl Crow was on Michael Jackson's BAD tour; so these amazing female vocalists were really not all that new. Etta James, Joni Mitchell, Billie Holiday; I had a lot to learn at the time, but Tori really opened that gateway and allowed me to explore this other side of popular music. While the Scorpions sang about "Winds of Change" - the Indigo Girls wanted to take the road "Least Complicated."

Be that as it may there is always a little something inside of me which is giddily encouraged by a new or different piano vocalist stepping onto the stage and turning my attention from the maelstrom that all popular music eventually flows into. It has been a couple of years since I'd really been wowed by anyone new to the scene; so imagine my shock and awe when I found Teresa Michalina; a new piano vocalist with a new record, "Carousel."