Just wanted to state my appreciation for Joanne Hogg, the singer and keyboardist with Iona. In the winmx days I found 3 or 4 quite obscure songs with her taking the vocals (in my defence in this instance anyway I don't think they are generally available in this country). Yasunori Mitsuda is a composer who uses various influences including Celtic. He does lots of things including video game music. I doubt there are many Iona fans who have been tipped off to the songs he had Joanne on vocals in the songs Pain, Kokora and Small Two of Pieces that were connected to Xenosaga project, a video game that became a tv series.
As a general question, I wonder how much of a song is the singer and how much the basic writing material? These songs show that Joanne Hogg is a lot more than Iona. I'd love to see her do a solo album of her own original compositions away from the confines of a theme or the Iona sound.
She also does a fantastic version of The Lord Is My Shepherd with Charlie Hall. She just shines with whatever she does. She has a calmness and quality to her voice and a presence that is as second to none. All your Cara Dillons and Suzanne Vegas are fantastic but I hear something more with Joanne. As I say mostly this is through Iona but to hear her singing outwith this brings home her genuine independent quality.
Monday, 17 March 2008
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