Melanie, again...

Yesterday I was out of the house all day due to a gaggle of workers descending upon us at 6:45am to put in new windows. Driving around a seemingly familiar voice came on the radio. I thought I was listening to Melanie. Melanie Safka is a folk singer who played at Woodstock and had moderate success with songs like "Brand New Key" (...I've got a brand new pair of rollerskates, you've got a brand new key...) and "What Have They Done to My Song, Ma" to name a couple.

I would know nothing about Melanie except that G used to cover a few of her songs and has quite the extensive collection of her albums.

My immediate thought was that I had missed the boat. A few years ago I considered writing a biography on her. After a little research I discovered that there was not much "there" to the story. She has a couple of children that she still tours with on the East Coast and they also play their own music.

Anyway, what I heard was not Melanie but Austrian singer/songwriter
Pina (Kollars).

Pina sounds very much like Melanie, she has Melanie's broad vocal range that starts out low and full and only gets stronger and louder with the progression of the song. She also has similar pacing, a hauntingly slow movement that accentuates each syllable. The DJ accidentally played two songs so I got a really strong impression of her voice. When I got home I sought her out and she actually looks remarkably like Melanie in the few photographs I could find.

I'm eager to go out and find the album. we are coming to a new age of great female singers: Aimee Mann, Beth Orton, Emmylou, Lucinda, Gillian Welch... I could go on. One has to wonder if Melanie was starting her career today if there would be a more receptive environment or too much competition. She did peform in the heyday of Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and Carole King. She was definitely in some excellent company.

Listen to Pina here.

Posted by Molli at July 17, 2002 06:11 PM