For more than 20 years, Tori Amos has been an inventive and distinctive singer-songwriter. Her haunting piano work and intensely emotional lyrics about love, womanhood and personal tragedy earned her a following unlike that of any modern musician. Assimilating influences from various spheres of contemporary music, Amos has more recently begun crafting records using new electronic instrumentation and even alter egos.
In the early '90s, Amos earned notoriety for being one of the few up-and-coming female musicians to use piano as a primary instrument. Eschewing the overdriven guitars and heavy beats of the emerging grunge scene, her rebellious, confessional style nonetheless fit the aesthetic of the time. Sometimes eccentric, sometimes controversial, Amos has always created music that is distinctively her own. For the first time in her career, Amos plans to release a collection of holiday standards next month. Following the release of Abnormally Attracted to Sin, released this past May, Amos makes a surprising shift to holiday gaiety on her 11th album, Midwinter Graces.
Note: This story originally ran on 10/23/09
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