The Steel Guitar Forum

I think she's a nice-looking girl. To each their own, I guess. Granted, she doesn't seem to have too much on the ball mentally, but that would only concern me if I was actually trying to have a relationship with her. From afar, looks are more appealing than personality. I'll leave it to her string of boyfriends to put up with the reality of her less-than-stellar intellectual appeal.

BTW, getting back to the original topic of this thread, I don't think her new album is any worse than all the other stuff in the teen-driven top 40 these days.

I suspect she sings better than Ashlee Simpson.
But not Jessica, who looks MUCH better.

I have said it before in other threads, but, unless a person actually plays an INSTRUMENT,
I have always had a hard time figuring where the talent is involved. Anyone can get behind a microphone and play roxtar.Actually learning music and spending the time to grow the callouses says tons more to me than buying your way to celebrity.

Rita Hayworth and of course Elizabeth Taylor in their day were the most beautiful women ever to me. I'd hardly call Paris Hiltons life pathetic. The girl is filthy rich and has every photographer in Hollywood chasing her night and day. I'd say they aren't doing that because she's ugly. The girl knows exactly what she's doing. Now really if she looked like Rosie Odonnell do you really think they'd be chasing her like that?

I think you guys forgot the "Creme der la Creme" Zazs Suzs Pitts, and Marjorie Maine.

<SMALL>I have said it before in other threads, but, unless a person actually plays an INSTRUMENT, I have always had a hard time figuring where the talent is involved</SMALL>

Um... can you say 'Linda Ronstadt'? 'Ella Fitzgerald'? 'Mel Torme'? Hello?

It has been said that most fine instrumentalists,
strive to imitate the emotional curve
and control of the human voice.

Some good examples of those voices to emulate Jimbeaux just posted.

I doubt many are trying to imitate Paris's singing,
on their instruments,
though I guess a small raft of semi-pubicent teens
are trying to sing like her...
Glad I am on the other side of the globe
from them...

Some unimportant but somewhat related trivia about vocalists playing an instrument...

'Mel Torme' and one of the networks, were once sued by the AFM because Mel played a ukelele on a national TV show and wasn't a member of their union.

Torme maintained he wasn't "playing" but was only using it as a prop. The union maintained that "holding the instrument" while performing was the same as playing it, and he was required to be an AFM member.

I don't know how that issue was finally settled, but I have worked with several vocalists who "wore" a guitar while performing, but couldn't have legally been convicted of having "played" it!

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www.genejones.com

Ronstadt, Sinatra, Jagger, Torme, Wayne Newton, I don't care.
I have the soul of a fiddler and picker &
I am just unimpressed by it.
Hey- others on this forum have incredibly narrow opinions of what makes for great steel music.
Granted, some of the above have reputations and
paid their dues- in that world where it's needed to be credible.
Who among us would say the same of P.H.?
OR the wanna-be celebrity culture.
That's all I'm talking about.
Give me the kid who sits down at his guitar first thing he does when he gets home from school and plays til they call him for dinner-
THOSE are the people that keep it alive.

The voice is a fretless instrument (like a steel).
Some play it very well, like Connie Smith, Ella FitzGerald, Frank Sanatra and others of that caliber.
Paris is still trying to learn how to tune hers, and in the mean time, has to rely on Pro Tools.
I'd like to hear her try to sing on the same stage as Rhonda Vincent!<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Andy Greatrix on 14 September 2006 at 08:40 AM.]</p></FONT>

WOW! More comments than Mark Knofler.

<SMALL>It has been said that most fine instrumentalists, strive to imitate the emotional curve and control of the human voice.</SMALL>

I believe the opposite: that most fine vocalists are in fact striving to imitate the emotional curve and control of the steel guitar.

Mel Torme was actually a very fine pianist.
So was Sarah Vaughan.

-John

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www.ottawajazz.com

Enrico Caruso, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti.... danged no-talents!

I'm so glad I'm so much more talented than they are, cuz I can play an instrument. <font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 14 September 2006 at 05:42 PM.]</p></FONT>

The voice is an instrument, it's just not one that can be bought on eBay. In my opinion a good singer is just as much of a musician as any guitarist, pianist, violinist, or whatever.

Now, in regard to PH and the rest of the "15 Minutes of Instant Fame" cult, there are 'singers' who can't sing and there are 'guitarists' who can't play,- these are times when the talent to make headlines is held in higher regard than the talent to make art.

Steinar

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"Play to express, not to impress"
www.gregertsen.com
Southern Moon Northern Lights

Wayne Newton can play 17 instruments competantly,
and did so daily in his Vegas show,
for at least one song.
No flys on him.. if you like the style.

Some people are blessed with a fine vocal instrument
that they then worked VERY, VERY hard
to make a supurb instrument.

They often got a rudimentary basics, or more,
on piano to work with this training.

But these days that is more and more exceptional.
Darn it.

I feel that most good singers are better
for having strong instrumental ablities also.
But it isn't exclusive that great singers have to be musicians.

Nat King Cole was both a super singer,
and a super piano player,
But more remember him for singing.

One of the more recent examples of a supurbly trained singer
crossing over between pop and classical
is Michael Bolton.

A baritone who pushed his range cleanly up to tenor,
and now sings with Pavaroti on shows in Italy,
when he wants too.
And a heck of a nice guy to meet too.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 14 September 2006 at 10:22 PM.]</p></FONT>

Does anyone here actually believe that Paris Hilton can sing?

No, b0b, she doesn't need to be able to sing thanks to Auto-Tuners. That's why we're bombarded with Ashlee's and Brittany's and on and on........a lot of little girls can at least hold a note, and the producers take it from there.

BTW, a lot of the new country artists can't sing either - not a surprise to most of you anyway. You can hear the auto-tuner kickin' in on much of the new country stuff. The music for most of these "artists" has merely become a selling point for their latest line of clothes or perfume. It's just another commercial tool, like a video or an ad. It just draws in the people and then they buy the artist's mechandise. Makes sense business-wise now, because with everybody downloading music it's almost pointless to try to make money from album sales.

From what I heard PH can't sing so what about Britney Spears? She sounds like she's got a frog in her throat to me but she's selling CD's like crazy and her personal appearances are sold out. If it sells and they're cashing in then the proof is in the pudding. It sure beats the gigs that I play!

The only thing I can figure is that Brittney, Ashlee, Jessica, Paris et. al. signed a pact with the Devil. There's no other way to explain it.