We've lost Phoebe Snow! And her death marks the passing of another great singer - and one heard not that often. I am lucky to count Phoebe Snow among the many entertainers that I met as a youngster. I have met the divas, but with Miss Snow, there weren't any grand gestures, attitudes nor temperament. I remember a very warm woman who wanted to keep it real with me. And perhaps that's the most grand gesture one could hope for!
She was appearing at a local club called Bogart's, a very popular but very funky little dive in what was then known as Cincinnati's "college town." I knew that I was not going to be able to make the show, so I decided at the last minute to just go and meet the woman with the raucous yet mellow voice that excited me so much with her debut album, Phoebe Snow, and its follow-up, Second Childhood. At the time, her latest album was Never Letting Go, and her remake of Barbara Acklin's Love Makes A Woman, Majesty of Life, and the title song was giving every body new life - especially in those wind-down early morning hours after a night of clubbing.
This was a time when you could pick up the phone, dial a local hotel and ask "Is Phoebe Snow stayin there?" and they'd tell you. "But she just left" the operator volunteered. "She's gone on to wherever she's singing tonight" she added. This was also back in the day when you could show up at the venue and if you were slick enough, maneuver your way back stage with no problem. Snow wasn't rehearsing. She was just busy in a backstage conference about something....but she sent word that she would welcome me in her dressing room if I could wait about thirty minutes. All I had with me was her latest records......of course I could!
I was finally ushered into Snow's dressing room and she graciously thanked me for coming to meet her, and asked was I going to hang around for the show. But I really wasn't prepared to do that especially after nobody offered me a free ticket. After all, Michael "Wide Receiver" Henderson had done as much a few years before when he appeared at the same club- and when I was a few years younger! She understood, I gushed and then she personally inscribed my albums and gave me a big hug and kiss and that was the end of it.
Or so I thought! Fast forward a few years and I'm selling items out of a collection of memorabilia that included vintage photographs and - record albums. Times were tough and I needed some money. Or so I thought! Looking back, the times weren't really as tough as I was just really DUMB! I sold Phoebe's albums for mere pocket change, and gave new meaning to her hit song, Never Letting Go. Indeed!
It was a move that I always regretted! The recordings was the LEAST of it! But I got my chance to get one of the albums back a few years later when I saw it in a local used record shop for just .99cents. YES! MY ALBUM! INSCRIBED TO ME! Silly me, I just laughed and left it there. I changed my mind a few days later and went back to get it. It was gone! Just DUMB!
According to the entry on Wikipedia, Phoebe Snow suffered a brain hemorrhage on January 19, 2010 and slipped into a coma enduring bouts of blood clots, pneumonia, and congestive heart failure. She died on April 26, 2011 at the age of 60. Younger audiences will know Phoebe Snow from her appearance in the Patrick Ian Polk film, Jumping The Broom, the wonderful movie that evolved from the Logo series, Noah's Ark.
Phoebe Snow was born Phoebe Ann Laub in Teaneck, New Jersey. She grew up in a household filled from top to bottom with all kinds of music from the down-home blues of the delta to Broadway. She studied opera and played folk on her guitar. She was a disciple of Bessie Smith's and Snow worshipped Billie Holiday. In fact, I didn't really know for sure that Miss Snow wasn't a woman of color until the very evening that I met her. I'm sure that she saw me try to conceal the register of surprise that came over countless black kids the first time they discovered the singer of Poetry Man was not a sistah.
But she was a sister! I could not have asked for a more pleasant experience hanging out backstage in her dressing room. She welcomed me heart-to-heart like a brotha! I've had to buy back the music that I once let go, but I'll never let go of the memories & laughs I had with Miss Phoebe Snow for all of 45 minutes in her dressing room.
What a great story! What a loss her death is...
Posted by: Brandon | April 27, 2011 at 05:28 PM