(3413) Sarah McLachlan / Duffy

From the ACL Taping Program on December 8, 2008:

With the release of her greatest hits collection, Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan, the multi-Grammy Winning singer, songwriter and activist makes her Austin City Limits debut.

Her career began in the late 80s, but it was McLachlan‚s landmark fifth album, 1997's Surfacing, that helped bring her to the national spotlight. The CD contained two Grammy Award-winning tracks: "Building a Mystery" won for Best Female Pop Vocal and "Last Dance" was voted Best Pop Instrumental.

The 1999 Lilith Fair tour gave rise to McLachlan‚s album Mirrorball, which earned McLachlan her third career Grammy Award. "Up until that point, I had managed to live my career rather quietly," McLachlan said. "It was Lilith Fair that catapulted me into a different stratosphere as far as the media frenzy and public knowledge." 2003's Afterglow received two Grammy Award nominations for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Female Pop Vocal for "Fallen."

In September 2004, McLachlan released the socially charged video "World On Fire." The video made what the New York Times called "a modestly brilliant gesture: it stacks up budget items for a typical clip against what the same $150,000 budget would buy as relief efforts. The contrast between show-business splurges and practical aid is startling." Most of the $150,000 video budget was distributed among charitable organizations.

McLachlan continues to write personal, evocative songs while using her status to help causes she believes in. "My idea of success has always been, does it feel right? Does it feel good to me? Do I enjoy doing it? And somehow miraculously, I've been able to follow that path and have a great success at it," McLachlan said.

Link to Sarah McLachlan's artist page.

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From the ACL Taping Program on October 8, 2008:

The 23-year-old Aimee Anne Duffy "boasts a cool power" (The Los Angeles Times)  with a "husky-sweet and preternaturally seasoned" (Boston Globe) voice that has both critics and fans looking for even greater things from this new artist.

Duffy was born and spent her childhood years in the north Wales coastal community of Nefyn. She began singing with local bands in her teens. She gained a following at jazz and blues club near her college in England. In England, she met manager and record label owner Jeanette Lee who introduced Duffy to ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler. Duffy and Butler worked closely writing the lyrics and crafting a retro sound for the singer's debut CD.

Rockferry, which was released earlier this year, is "a fantastic album of burning blue soul" (Observer Music Monthly). The Onion AV Club wrote, "Crooning over sparse, noir-y piano lines one moment, then belting over soaring strings the next, Duffy's voice creates an almost eerie sense of isolation, as if her universal laments on love and loss are a secret known only to her." The hit single from Rockferry, "Mercy," made her the first female Welsh singer to hit number one on the UK pop charts in more than 20 years.  Entertainment Weekly called the song "a go-go number that's as sassy as a Mary Quant miniskirt."

Her robust, soulful voice is quickly making her just as popular in the States. Duffy's 2008 South By Southwest performance left many making comparisons to Dusty Springfield and Amy Winehouse.

"People keep asking me where my voice comes from and the fact is I don't know," Duffy said. "Why are your eyes the color they are? It's no answer at all but it's the only one I have."

Link to Duffy's artist page.

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