Performing Songwriter Interview (November, 2006)

“I believe your spine responds to music in a way that it might not respond to visuals. That sound can reach inside you in a very primal way. I like to create these sonic resorts that people can walk into and never leave their chair.”— Tori Amos

Tori talks about A Piano — and pleads the 5th on the new album — in the November 2006 issue of Performing Songwriter. Thanks to zed / meade for letting us know about this.

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"Jackie's Strength" in "Sisters in Song" Compilation

Get out your Lilith Fair t-shirts! Die-hard Tori collectors will want to know about “Sisters in Song,” a compilation produced by Somerset Entertainment and Rhino Special Markets and sold exclusively by Hallmark (yes, the greeting card company) in its stores. The collection includes “Jackie’s Strength” along with a boatload of other lady songstresses. The tracklist is as follows:

1) Lisa Loeb, “Fools Like Me”
2) Sarah Harmer, “Don’t Get Your Back Up”
3) Shawn Colvin, “Matter of Minutes”
4) Kathleen Edwards, “Good Things”
5) Vanessa Carlton, “Ordinary Day”
6) Aya Peard, “This Mess”
7) Natalie Merchant, “Kind and Generous”
8) k.d. lang, “Helpless”
9) Tori Amos, “Jackie’s Strength”
10) The Corrs, “Runaway”
11) Antigone Rising, “Don’t Look Back”
12) Cherie, “I’m Ready”
13) Kasey Chambers, “Not Pretty Enough”
14) Jane Siberry, “Calling All Angels”
15) Toby Lightman, “Everyday”

“Sisters in Song” came out in June, but we didn’t find out about it until an anonymous fan tipped us off in September. It then took Hallmark’s peeps more than a month to dig up the tracklist and cover art for us.

Paste's Piano Giveaway

Seems like everybody is giving Tori stuff away! Paste Magazine is running a contest, the winner of which will receive a copy of A Piano: The Collection. To enter the drawing for the set, correctly answer their trivia question about Tori and you will be eligible to win.

Little Blue World's Holiday Contest

‘Tis the season to be generous, and Tori fanzine Little Blue World wants to give! Every order placed on their website or by mail between now and December 31st (mail orders must be postmarked no later than that date) will be entered into a drawing for special gifts from LBW. Five randomly chosen entries will receive a holiday present which will be shipped in January along with the winter issue. Gifts include an original Under The Pink tour “bitch” necklace and signed memorabilia. Order back issues, try a new subscription, extend an existing subscription or give a gift to a fellow fan. Each order increases your chance to win!

For more information about LBW, the contest or the prizes, please visit their website at http://www.little-blue-world.org.

UPDATE (November 15): Little Blue World has revised the rules for their holiday contest. View our follow-up article with details about the new rules here.

Tori's Private Passions

Don’t forget y’all: as our calender thingie says, the final appearance Tori conducted for BBC Radio during the push for the release for A Piano will be aired this weekend. Michael Berkeley’s interview with Tori will be broadcast on his Radio 3 program Private Passions (ooh la la!) on Sunday, November 12th at 1200 PM BST (1:00 PM CET/7:00 AM EST/4:00 PM PST). The tease for the interview reads:

A classically-trained pianist from a strict Methodist background, her own music explores many fascinating themes, including the role of women in religion. Her musical choices reveal the strong influence of keyboard music and range from Bach and Beethoven to Rachmaninov and Prokofiev.

If you miss the live broadcast on-air, on-digital radio or online, it’ll be available for a week after the broadcast in the BBC’s streaming archive.

Thanks to Kristin for the reminder!

(Read the transcript.)

Brandi On Matt

It seems Matt Chamberlain snuck in a little studio time with Seattle musician Brandi Carlisle for the recording of her new self-titled debut album. Brandi talks about how Matt contributed to the album in an article in the Daily Record:

One of the things [producer T Bone] Burnett did to keep the songs fresh was bring in studio drummer Matt Chamberlain. Chamberlain, a former drummer for Pearl Jam, has recorded with David Bowie, Stevie Nicks, Kanye West, John Mayer and others.

“We played a lot of songs that had never been played with drums with drums,” Carlile said. “To play the songs with such an incredible artist like Matt Chamberlain really made the songs feel like a brand new thing.”

Kudos to Sean for catching this article.

Here a Tori, There a Tori, Everywhere a Tori Tori

Tori has been popping up in all sorts of fun places lately. In October, listeners of New York radio station WFUV 90.7 ranked “Little Earthquakes” as #72 among its top 90 essential albums. In Philadelphia, WXPN 88.5 ranked Tori #81 among 885 important musicians and played “Silent All These Years,” “Cornflake Girl,” and “Caught a Lite Sneeze” during the two-week-long countdown.

Fashion designers Viktor and Rolf mentioned Tori twice in an interview in the November issue of Elle (with Jessica Alba on the cover):

Elle: If you could have somebody else’s body, whose would it be?

V&R: Why not somebody else’s wit, intelligence or spirit, like Tori Amos, Rufus Wainwright or Tilda Swinton?

Elle: Your favorite song?

V&R: The one Tori Amos wrote for our fashion show and the one Rufus Wainwright composed for our soundtrack for our men’s perfume, Antidote.

And, last but definitely not least, Tori turns up in the new Dresden Dolls video, “Backstabber,” in which Dolls cohorts Brian Viglione and Amanda Palmer take each other’s clothes off and discover that each body part is tattooed with the name of a different famous musician. Tori’s name appears on Brian’s cheek. Some of the other names are … well, just see for yourself:

Many thanks to Heidi, Craig, Jamie, and all the others who let us know about Tori’s latest cultural invasions!

Out In Toronto Tackles A Piano

Fear not fearless readers! This is the last review of A Piano ... for now! Swing by Out In Toronto to see what they have to say about the boxed set. Or read it below. Thanks to Armen for the link!

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Wears The Trousers Reviews A Piano

Alex Ramon reviewed A Piano for Wears The Trousers, a new online magazine that focuses on women in music.

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Retrolowfi Piano Review

Retrolowfi, which previously brought us Under The Pink in a blender, has reviewed A Piano: The Collection. This time, it’s a straight-up analysis, rather than another episode of Records On Random.