Stevie and her voice

[Artemis]

Something I've been thinking about for a while now, but haven't found any answers anywhere. Has Stevie ever given any interviews or anything where she talks about her ever-changing voice? I've always been fascinated to wonder what she thinks about it.

[Sanne2]

According to her her voice hasn't changed since 1976.

[darklinensuit]

I think it was in the 1990s when an interviewer complimented her on how good she was sounding, & she responded that she hoped her voice would continue to grow stronger with age like a great opera singer's.

- Jake

[David]

Radio interview in 1980, she said that she wasn't a great singer but she was a good one.

In the Chris Isaak show, she talked about how she believes coke affected her voice and how she has problems now because of it (rather, the hole in her nose).

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by joe

In the Chris Isaak show, she talked about how she believes coke affected her voice and how she has problems now because of it (rather, the hole in her nose).

Yeah, as opposed to the cigarette and weed smoking...

[sorcerer999]

Originally Posted by CADreaming

Yeah, as opposed to the cigarette and weed smoking...

Smoking can definitely affect one's singing voice...unless your Kate Bush or Alison Krauss, who are both chain smokers and still sound amazing.

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by sorcerer999

Smoking can definitely affect one's singing voice...unless your Kate Bush or Alison Krauss, who are both chain smokers and still sound amazing.

Alison Krauss??? Wow...never would have guessed it. But, I know of a ton of people who's voices it affected and in many ways ruined their voice.

[fringed n fab]

Originally Posted by CADreaming

Alison Krauss??? Wow...never would have guessed it. But, I know of a ton of people who's voices it affected and in many ways ruined their voice.

I love Alison Krauss and her voice. But I never knew she smoked!

[Kena]

I was thinking about the same thing earlier this morning. I wonder what her voice would should like had she not smoked and snorted for years. How much would it have changed naturally? My kid and I were discussing Stevie's voice yesterday and my daughter said she likes Stevie's voice now over back when it went "uh uh uh uh" *shakes head up and down mimicking a vibrating motion*. I guess compared to what kids hear these days (oh geez, I sound like my grandma!) it's sooo different. Nobody sounds like Stevie Nicks.

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by Kena

I was thinking about the same thing earlier this morning. I wonder what her voice would should like had she not smoked and snorted for years. How much would it have changed naturally? My kid and I were discussing Stevie's voice yesterday and my daughter said she likes Stevie's voice now over back when it went "uh uh uh uh" *shakes head up and down mimicking a vibrating motion*. I guess compared to what kids hear these days (oh geez, I sound like my grandma!) it's sooo different. Nobody sounds like Stevie Nicks.

In think the vibrato is not an artifact of her smoking/snorting as much as it was a means of adding "color" to a voice that, without adornment, was as nondescript as it was pretty. It wasn't really until the Tusk era when the harder edge/vibrato in her voice really emerged... and it is a sound that literally resonated with the mainstream and catapulted her to solo stardom. I personally don't think she would be nearly as successful if she had retained her Rumours voice for the past three decades. Like her personal life at the time, her edgy, bellowing vibrato was often out of control and wild- a sound unlike anything that ever came before. That's how icons are made.

[Kena]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

In think the vibrato is not an artifact of her smoking/snorting as much as it was a means of adding "color" to a voice that, without adornment, was as nondescript as it was pretty. It wasn't really until the Tusk era when the harder edge/vibrato in her voice really emerged... and it is a sound that literally resonated with the mainstream and catapulted her to solo stardom. I personally don't think she would be nearly as successful if she had retained her Rumours voice for the past three decades. Like her personal life at the time, her edgy, bellowing vibrato was often out of control and wild- a sound unlike anything that ever came before. That's how icons are made.

I probably needed to include a little more in my previous post to cover the whole point I was trying to make.
Don't blame it on me, blame it on my ADHD.

Anywho, the vibrato (couldn't put my finger on the right word for that sound- now I got it-tanks!) is what I absolutely love about Stevie's voice, especially during the Tusk era. It was interesting to me that my kid seemed to like Stevie's modern (errr...flat) voice. That's what made me question why the kid (or anyone else) would prefer Stevie's modern voice over the Tusk voice if they had to chose? After all, the "bellowing vibrato" is part of what made her an icon like you said. My kid said the old Stevie voice was "weird." I guess it is compared to most of todays popular singers.

I gotta get that kid of mine straightened out.

I probably still missed my point. (Come on Vyvanse, kick in already!)

[jellyman10]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

In think the vibrato is not an artifact of her smoking/snorting as much as it was a means of adding "color" to a voice that, without adornment, was as nondescript as it was pretty. It wasn't really until the Tusk era when the harder edge/vibrato in her voice really emerged....

I'm not sure about this. Don't you think she has a lot of vibrato on the Buckingham Nicks album? I think the rasp really arrives with Tusk, because all those live 'Rhiannons' blew out her cords, but the vibrato (to my ears) was always there.

I'm interested in what you say about 'adding' it too, because I have tried and tried and TRIED to add vibrato to my singing voice and I just can't, beyond a tiny, tiny bit.

[GoldDustBoy]

Stevie's voice changed mostly because of improper singing. It is very obvious she has nodules on her vocal chords, and beside that she can have a surgery to have them fixed, the damage can never be completely reversed. Damaging her septum makes her sing nasally. Smoking doesn't affect the vocal chords that much. It can lower ones singing register to some degree, but it mostly affects the lung capacity, and makes the voice raspy because of the phlegm. I am a classically trained singer, so I know a bit about these things. Oh, and I chain smoke too.

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by jellyman10

I'm not sure about this. Don't you think she has a lot of vibrato on the Buckingham Nicks album? I think the rasp really arrives with Tusk, because all those live 'Rhiannons' blew out her cords, but the vibrato (to my ears) was always there.

I'm interested in what you say about 'adding' it too, because I have tried and tried and TRIED to add vibrato to my singing voice and I just can't, beyond a tiny, tiny bit.

Actually there is virtually zero vibrato on Buckingham Nicks that I can recall. The prime example of this is on "Crying in the Night" when she sings the line "...she can come curling 'round you like fing-uuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhs." Hardly any vibrato at all in that sustained note. I think somewhere between Rumours and Tusk she developed that distinctive vibrato which, as was mentioned earlier, coincided with the chronic abuse of her voice/drugs/smoking and the nodules on her vocal cords. And "straight tone" singing without a vibrato is supposedly very damaging to the voice since the vocal cords are forced to contract for prolonged periods without relaxation. So for all we know, the goat-y vibrato may have come about at the insistence of her doctors/singing coaches in order to save her voice.

Supposedly proper vibrato is something that comes about when the body parts involved with singing- the jaw, the throat, the trachea, etc. are in a state of total relaxation. It shouldn't be a forced affect. My suspicion is that Stevie probably used improper vibrato technique throughout the 80's, which culminated in the shrill/garbled sounding "Whoah" and "Well" syllables peppering Rock a Little Don't get me wrong- I loved this era of her voice! It was just so interesting. But I could tell, even back then, that this kind of singing was probably not good for the long haul. Consequently, her vibrato is much subtler these days... and I would dare say she is using it properly too!