Voices from the Northwest

I have focused on here before on some of my favourite guitarists, bassists and drummers, perhaps thinking that singers get enough of the limelight as it is. But there is one particular group of singers that has intrigued me for a while.

When I think of the great singing voices of the last sixty years or so, the really great ones I mean, there are some clusters across the years. There was a high volume of supreme singers coming out of the high-end jazz of the 1950s/60s (Ella, Billie), then the Motown and R&B/Blues scenes of the 1960s (Ross, Reeves, Redding), or the funk and soul acts of the 1970s/80s (Bailey, Vandross, Green, Withers).

Then in the pop and rock spheres, things were a bit sparser; yes, in the sixties, the soulful pop of Dusty Springfield, or the youthful blues of Steve Winwood, perhaps Scott Walker, or my favourite, Steve Marriott. The 1970s seems to have been the era of the rock god, and while there were some strong voices, perhaps only Robert Plant leaps to mind in that upper echelon of great singing.

From the eighties onwards, very few spring to mind; Mariah can certainly blast a tune out, but perhaps hasn't helped herself by keeping to a fairly narrow and saccharine brand of soulful pop. I would probably have to settle on the much missed talents of Amy Winehouse and Jeff Buckley (one of the few artists to stop me dead in my tracks the first time I heard him), as the cream of the singing crop in the last 30-40 years.

Except - there is one exception (in my view), in the last forty years, in terms of a grouping of staggeringly good singers to all come out of one broad area and scene. Let me take you back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the area around Seattle, Washington. West coast punk had made way for influences of psychedelia, blues and metal - and what became 'grunge' was born. How were there so many distinctive and incredible singers emanating from this one broad scene in such a short space of time? Well okay, I don't have the biology expertise, or any other science-based knowledge, to really answer that. But we are going to investigate a bit more, who these great voices were....

(L-R) Chris Cornell - Mark Lanegan (photo: Gie Knaeps / Getty) - Scott Weiland (photo: Karl Larson / Rhino)

---

Honourable Mentions:

It seems a tad harsh to not get too in depth on these first three singers, they are / were all fantastic, but I have decided to focus on my favourite three of the crop. But here are the ones who almost made the main list.

Layne Staley was the powerful voice at the front of Alice In Chains. He could move effortlessly from raw, haunting emotion to immense power, so full of pain. He also could cover a fairly big range, from the low and brooding, up to the high and belting it out end. They called his style, 'relaxed aggression'; the ability to switch from being laid back to “paint-peeling intensity” in an instant. 

Alice In Chains: Man in the Box (official music video)

Eddie Vedder, sadly the only one of the six being mentioned here that is still with us, has a huge emotional depth. His voice is matched by that steely, piercing gaze as he looks out from behind the Pearl Jam mic, before he unleashes a voice that is grounded with a low register full of resonance, but able to use (as I believe the vocal coaches would say) the high palate technique to hit the high notes.

Pearl Jam: Black (MTV Unplugged, 1992)

Kurt Cobain is probably the most familiar to most people. He sang with a voice that was raw and intense; it was full of passion and pain, and he was able to sing from the depth of his soul, and with the ability to emit these soul-quaking guttural screams.

Nirvana: Negative Creep (live in Seattle, 1991)

---

Scott Weiland:

Scott Weiland was born Scott Kline in San Jose, in 1967, but changed his name to his stepfather’s at the age of five. The family moved to Ohio where he was a young chorister, but they moved back to California when he was in his teens.

He had a baritone range, with a deep resonance and the ability to shred his chords with distorted screaming. He has often been compared to Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder; on record, he could layer his range up to give great depth to the songs he sung, and he crossed genres, from the so-called grunge of the Stone Temple Pilots, to hard rock with the supergroup, Velvet Revolver, and even a bit of a big band, crooning sound on his solo holiday album.

While it seems his vocal performances could waver at times during the latter part of his life and career, he was definitely right up there with the voices of that generation.

Stone Temple Pilots: Plush (official music video)

Far Out magazine noted that his influences ranged much further than some of his contemporaries; he was as obsessed with Bowie as he was the sounds of west coast punk, and saw himself as something of an heir to Jim Morrison. They said that his voice was “malleable enough to take on any guise; raspy glam rock, buoyant power pop, languid country, hushed ballads and gritty hard rock were all modes that Weiland felt comfortable in.”

After the growls of the first Pilots album Core, he pushed on into full-on rock star mode for its follow-up Purple and the standout single, Interstate Love Song. “It takes range and a keen sense of pitch, which weren’t always priorities in the grunge world. Thankfully, Weiland had it in spades.” Songs like Pretty Penny also show his vocal evolution, moving into his upper ranges.

Stone Temple Pilots: Pretty Penny (audio only)

“The pain and struggle were always apparent in Weiland’s voice, but it wasn’t angry or strained like his contemporaries. It was beautiful and weathered.” When he went solo he embraced lounge jazz, reggae and piano driven tunes. Lady Your Roof Brings Me Down, on debut solo record 12 Bar Blues, takes some New Orleans jazz, some Weiland throatiness and even some Sheryl Crow accordion.

Scott Weiland: Lady Your Roof Brings Me Down (audio only)

Now, I know what I like with singing, but I can't always explain why these singers are so good. Therefore I have enlisted the help of some vocal specialists to provide some analysis.

The Vocalyst (professional singer and vocal coach, Bethany Hickman ) did some analysis on Interstate Love Song. Hickman commented on the way many singers on the scene, like Weiland, Vedder and Chris Cornell, would tend to form their vowels with “a lowered soft palate”, full yet muffled in effect. She loved Weiland's voice, with its “really cool fullness, it’s just slightly affected, the tone, the sound.” It is full of qualities shared by many of the singers in this timeframe. In this song, he was able to open up his voice as it goes along, and while she felt that his phrasing was not revolutionary, she liked his natural approach; it has “a distinguished quality… the lack of elaborate phrasing… makes it more approachable.”

Stone Temple Pilots: Interstate Love Song (live on Howard Stern, 2000)

Hickman later did a review of Fall To Pieces, a hit single from his time with Velvet Revolver (featuring many Guns n Roses alumni). Straight off the bat, she can see that, “it is incredible, the change in his vocal production”, and yet, even though she had only heard that one other song of his, she could still instantly tell it was him. She was somewhat surprised at there being such huge development and growth of his musicality and vocals. There was still, she noted, a bit of the twang from before, but overall he now had “a warm, velvety sound… a natural sound.” Hickman points out the gorgeous texture in his upper range when he sings ‘fall to pieces / fell to pieces’, really giving it some edginess. “I love the twang in his upper register… it’s so pingy and so full at the same time”. So, while that first song she had reviewed hadn’t blown her away, by the time of this second track (a decade on), it shows so much vocally; perhaps it reflected a better song selection, in terms of demonstrating what a singer is capable of.

Velvet Revolver: Fall To Pieces (official music video)

More generally, Hickman reflected on Weiland's technicality, and how that impacts the resultant singing; “The great containment of the oral cavity opening…. push a lot of air through that, it creates this really cool affected sound that is full, has a bit of harshness. We definitely get texture because of the added air pressure and that relaxation that’s involved.”

Instagram music content curator, Lord Rare Rock, had this to say, providing a neat summary; “Scott Weiland was a study in vocal architecture. His phrasing and range could move from baritone croon to serrated growl in a single breath, bridging the theatricality of Bowie with the grit of Morrison… he treated every song as a performance in character.”

Smashing Pumpkins lead singer and guitarist, Billy Corgan, who had initially been sceptical of the Stone Temple Pilots, later said, “it was Scott’s phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere.”

So, there is the first of my big three - a man with great phrasing and timbre, who could cover a lot of ground in the rock hemisphere. But, who comes next?

Chris Cornell:

For many, I think Chris Cornell will probably stand at the top of this pile. Technically, his voice is quite possibly unmatched by anyone else in the last thirty years or so. He had been born in 1964, in Seattle, and lived a life that was a constant struggle with depression; he became a regular user of alcohol and marijuana by the age of thirteen.

He did though learn to play the piano and guitar as a child, and was heavily into the Beatles from a young age. He then started on the drums as a teenager. But, he also had this incredible baritone voice, with a staggering range of more than three octaves - from the low bass of C2, up into the soprano range at A5. In fact, Beyond The Wheel (from Soundgarden's debut, Ultramega OK) sees him hit three octaves in one song. Cornell also often experimented with other styles, like falsetto, screams and chanting.

Soundgarden: Beyond The Wheel (audio only)

He also had great control of his voice, and the ability to shift between sounds. He often pushed his voice to its limit, but did start to adjust his technique later on, with more depth control and emotional depth. Jon Pareles, writing in the New York Times said, “As it rose, higher and higher, Mr Cornell’s voice could sustain a melody through the fray, or it could confront hard-rock turbulence with grunts, rasps, wails, bitter moans and, at the top of his range, full-bodied shrieks that admitted no weakness.”

In his Soundgarden prime, at the Marquee Club in 1990

His peers were quick to announce how great he was, both during his life, and after his 2017 death. Guns n Roses shouter in chief, Axl Rose, said of him way back in 1989; “The guy sings so great”, confirming his belief that he was, at the point in time, the best rock vocalist out there. Eddie Vedder noted in 2009 that Cornell was “the best singer that we’ve got on the planet.”

On his death, Scott Stapp (Creed) reflected that Cornell was indeed “the greatest pure Rock singer.. From the soulfulness, to the top end of his range when he gets metal and aggressive, to his choice of melodies and how the melody in itself, despite what he’s saying, can incite emotion.” Rock legend Alice Cooper was no less positive in his praise, because “Chris Cornell, in our circle, was known as The Voice because he had the best voice in rock and roll.”

Soundgarden: Burden In My Hand (official music video)

Metal magazine Kerrang rated him too. They felt that Burden In My Hand (from Soundgarden's 1996 LP, Down On The Upside) saw him really lock into 70s rock god mode, “with the utmost finesse and a sense of lung busting brilliance.” They also talked up his singing on Cochise by Audioslave; “The singer’s scream after the middle eight, three minutes in, remains not only one of the best of his career, but arguably one of the best in the history of rock music.”

Audioslave: Cochise (official music video)

We return to some thoughts from The Vocalyst, who got stuck into analysing Soundgarden's classic, Fell On Black Days. Hickman locked onto how smooth he was, even as he was transitioning up and down, with a snarly texture at the end of some words; “a sort of glow coming off of his voice”.

Soundgarden: Fell On Black Days (official music video - simply incredible)

His voice, she noted. pairs rather well with the guitar when he is singing falsetto. Getting into the technicalities of it, Hickman informs us that good facial relaxation helps with lifting the soft palate (in case you weren't aware), which coupled with the emotion coming from inside, helps with the tone and texture. As with classical music, Cornell was singing “on the edge of the chords", showing a delicate and refined presence. Then, there comes the intensity, you can see the facial change, with more air pressure. Cornell, she says, is quite similar to Eddie Vedder in many ways, but his onset is so delicate - his voice rings clear, whereas Vedder has more texture when doing the same sort of thing.

Hickman later reviewed him singing Like A Stone, from when he formed Audioslave with the musicians out of Rage Against The Machine. Again, there is almost a decade between songs she has listened to, but instantly notes “there is a quality to his voice… there is a depth and richness to the sound that is so beautifully balanced and so beautifully complemented by that forward placement. It is so full and yet he has the dexterity to move and shift and do so many things with his voice because of it.”

Chris Cornell: Like A Stone (live solo acoustic AOL session, 2006 - wow!)

She notes that Cornell gets some grit and added texture throughout, that is consistent in his delivery, and he has the ability to amp it up and down as needed. His vocal mix is so balanced, there is brightness and bite, but it remains rich and grounded. Hickman is clearly enthralled, as the rest of us were (and are) at how good he was; the timbre, the edge, and the brightness - all match to the music so brilliantly. Then he shifts into something completely different, through the sets of the last chorus. Her summary tells us all we need to know about how good Chris Cornell really was. “Knowing where your money notes are and when to use them… it adds so much character to a song.” He is soulful as we reach the end of this particular song and Hickman concludes, “I will never be able to fully articulate what a brilliant vocalist he was.”

The fact that he died on 18 May 2017 is tragic, but something of an aside for this article, other than it is a tragic day in many musical ways, as it is also the same date that Ian Curtis (Joy Division - 1980) and Cathal Coughlan (Microdisney - 2022) also died.

Mark Lanegan:

We finish with, I think, my favourite of the lot. Mark Lanegan possibly wasn't technically the best of this crop, but there was something visceral about him, really coming from somewhere deep in his soul and grabbing you.

Like many of these singers, he did not have an easy start to life; born in Washington state in 1964, he had developed an alcohol problem by twelve, and was a drug addict by eighteen.

His start in the music business, was first as the drummer for Screaming Trees, but luckily for us he wasn’t particularly proficient at that and so switched his focus to singing. And what a voice he graced us with; a deep and weathered baritone, which contained a lot of growl and rasp. He was often, quite fairly, likened to Nick Cave and Tom Waits, for his ability to conjure up bleak yet somehow still inviting atmospheres with his singing. You often hear phrases like "lived-in", "whiskey-soaked" and "haunting" when people describe his vocal impact.

Josh Keller (of music blog Reviler) summed him up probably better than I ever could; “Mark Lanegan’s voice is a monster. When I hear his powerful, commanding voice on record, it conjures up vivid, often bleak imagery. For me, it often involves dark rooms cut only by flickering candles, lots of cigarettes and whiskey, a steel chair and for some reason, old industrial machine.”

Meanwhile, Stuart Berman (Pitchfork) commented that, “While his guttural voice, menacing stage presence and piercing death stare earned him an unshakable reputation as a post-grunge grim reaper… Lanegan’s sprawling discography presents an artist constantly striving for the beauty that life so often denied him.”

His version of Where Did You Sleep Last Night by blues legend Lead Belly, which he recorded in 1989, includes Mark Pickerel (his Screaming Trees bandmate at the time), Krist Novoselic and Kurt Cobain (both of Nirvana) on backing vocals. It would eventually turn up on his solo album, The Winding Sheet, while Nirvana would take the idea and use it on their legendary 1993 MTV Unplugged session - a nod of respect to Lanegan.

Mark Lanegan: Where Did You Sleep Last Night (audio - with Kurt Cobain)

Berman, talking about some of the early Screaming Trees stuff, like Bed Of Roses, sees his voice “deep and sonorous, but not yet displaying the ravages of a hard knock life." Lanegan got to know, and befriend, one of his early musical heroes, the somewhat eccentric but talismanic blues punk leader of the Gun Club, Jeffrey Lee Pierce. He admired him as the man “who made the underground safe for blues loving punks back in the early 80s." Pierce gave him one of his unfinished songs, Kimiko’s Dream House, which Lanegan would go on to complete after Pierce's death, and was included on his 200 solo LP, Field Songs.

Lanegan would also form an unlikely partnership with cellist/singer Isobel Campbell from Scottish indie band, Belle And Sebastian. Some likened the pairing as almost being like a Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra for the 1990s. As Berman notes, “Their vocals are layered into imperfect harmonies that can feel both charming and, at times, a little unsettling, with Campbell sounding less like Lanegan’s singing partner than a voice trapped inside his head.”

Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell: Ballad of the Broken Seas (audio only)

Steve Fisk, who produced Screaming Trees debut Other Worlds EP and their Clairvoyance album (in a YouTube interview in 2022), remembered how Lanegan was at home in his lower octave, before he fully blossomed. “You can start to hear the Mark Lanegan we know… the screams all land”. Fisk could see, even in those early days, that he was turning into something special, he pointed out that Lanegan was always good and melodic.

Screaming Trees: I See Stars (audio only)

But Lanegan was often constantly in physical pain, suffering with lots of headaches, yet was always sober when they worked together. Fisk recalls that even the scratch vocals on 8-track demos “were so good”, as he delivered on every take - he was extremely regretful that he never kept those tapes! 

Photo: Lauren Slusher

The day after Lanegan's death, in February 2022, Eddie Vedder led the tributes, stopping during a gig to remember how he “was such a strong voice, it’s hard to come to terms at this point… he will be deeply missed… but at least we will always have his voice to listen to…”

Just JP also spotted that Tom Waits likeness when listening to One Way Street (on Field Songs), with that “deeper, occasionally guttural voice." Artist and voice coach, Beth Roars (Beth Bradford) reviewed one of his songs (Long Gone Day) with the short-lived grunge supergroup Mad Season, where he duetted with Layne Staley. "I love his richness of tone… not the most madly technical singer, but he has warmth to his tone, he has great storytelling and he’s cool.” There was, she felt, a good blend of voices between him and Staley; “His tone is so rich, it’s bluesy where it scoops that big wobbly vibrato”.

Mad Season: Long Gone Day (live in Seattle, 1995)

Because, for some unknown reason, there is less analysis of Lanegan and his singing, I will have to try and put my feelings into words. I have spent some time delving into some of his solo stuff, which I hadn't previously heard much of, as well as a bunch of the Screaming Trees records.

If you go back to the earliest days of Screaming Trees, like debut Clairvoyance, you get hints of what was to come, with the psych-garage rock of songs like I See Stars, where he is channeling Rob Tyner (MC5). By 1990s Uncle Anaesthesia, you are thinking - yes - he has arrived. His voice is already at full smokiness on Bed of Roses, with some cracked majesty on the title track, before he opens up his throat into that plaintive roar.

Screaming Trees: Bed Of Roses (official music video)

His solo efforts started that same year, with the aptly named Whiskey For The Holy Ghost. On Barracho, his whispering rises to a booze soaked growl, before he finds a haunted howl from somewhere. Elsewhere, on El Sol, his voice is warmer and wraps around you in comfort. Then there is Tom Waits comparison really up front on Sunrise, yet he blends his voice most beautifully with the female lead (either Krisha Augerot or Sally Barry).

The big Trees record was Sweet Oblivion, full of classic tracks like Nearly Lost You and Dollar Bill. But it is on Winter Song you get the full deal - a low, guttural and soulful rasp makes way for that familiar warm and weathered timbre. If you love great rock records though, if you haven't already, check out 1996s Dust - it is meaty, hooky, perfectly executed album. This isn't a record review though, Lanegan's vocals on it are controlled, always smoky and rough, but not exploring the full range like he does on some others.

Screaming Trees: Winter Song (live on Rockpalast, 1996)

There is more great vocal blending on his 2001 solo album Field Songs, this time with his then wife Wendy Rae Fowler, on No Easy Action. Don't Forget Me is easy paced country rock, where he works through the gears with more warm hooks, before stretching out with more emotion. Low is another standout, where he breathes so much into such a simple song, over the hum of hammond organ and an acoustic strum.

Mark Lanegan: Don't Forget Me

(live at the Ding Dong Lounge [Auckland apparently], 2012)

To finish this vocal evolution, let's move to 2014s Phantom Radio. Here we get a different sound on songs like Floor of the Ocean, where he is managing his voice differently. It sounds a little flatter, older, but he is still able to stretch it out.

Mark Lanegan Band: Floor of the Ocean (official video)

---

So, as I warned at the start, I can't really answer the question as to why there were so many really great voices coming out of the Seattle scene at that time. In truth, it wasn't even really one scene - grunge was more of a record company label to sell more records; each band took a pinch of a bunch of different influences (punk, metal, psychedelia, garage rock, classic rock, blues) and each did something slightly different with it.

The one commonality seems to be these great voices - and my one big regret is that it kind of passed me by at the time (besides the big hits you couldn't avoid) - I should have been washed in this a long time ago.