Pop Superstar Phoebe Snow to Play Free

Concert on the UC Davis Quad

Davis, California-Platinum-selling pop singer Phoebe Snow will perform a free, outdoor concert on the UC Davis Quad in the final event of SummerMusic 2008, a series of free performances on the Quad presented by the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts and sponsored by UC Davis Summer Sessions.

The event will begin at 7:30 pm on Monday, August 25 on the quad near the center of the university campus, with the area opening for picnics beginning at 6:30 pm. In accordance with university policy, alcoholic beverages are not permitted. Admission is free.

One of the biggest stars in pop music during the 1970s, Phoebe Snow has been widely acclaimed as one of the great artists of the singer-songwriter genre. After nearly abandoning live performance in the wake of the death of her daughter, Valerie, last year, Snow is making a return to the spotlight, thanks in part to encouragement from friends, including superstar singer Linda Ronstadt. With her four-octave vocal range and jazz-influenced delivery, she's been winning rave reviews for her return performances, with The New York Times praising her "superabundance of vocal talent" and calling her "a phenomenon unto herself" after one recent show.

Born Phoebe Ann Laub in New York City in 1952, Snow was raised in a household where the jazz, blues, Broadway show tunes, classical, and folk music recordings played constantly on the family phonograph. She soon gravitated to the Greenwich Village folk scene, where she began performing as a teenager. One night, while singing at the Bitter End, she so impressed an executive from Shelter Records that he signed her immediately and produced her self-titled debut recording. Considered a classic of the singer-songwriter genre, Phoebe Snow features guest appearances by Zoot Sims, Teddy Wilson, Dave Mason, and the Persuasions, placing Snow's remarkable voice in a set of songs that combining folk, jazz, and pop. The record delighted audiences and critics, and spawned a top five hit, "Poetry Man," in 1975.

Snow became one of pop music's biggest stars, winning platinum sales figures, Grammy Award nominations, and legions of fans. She scored several other hits during the 1970s, including "Harpo's Blues," "Gone at Last," and "Shaky Ground," before her career lost momentum due to problems with her record labels, personal illness, and her desire to provide care for her daughter, who was born with severe brain damage. Snow did not want to institutionalize her daughter, Valerie, and decided to provide home care for her. Though initially not expected to live long, Valerie died only last year.

"She survived an impossibly traumatic birth and subsequent high-risk surgeries, and then continued to mystify doctors and hospital staff as she beat medical odds again and again throughout her 31 years," Snow said in her eulogy, delivered at the funeral in March 2007. "She was and is a profound gift, a work of art, a luminous light. Her awesome strength, courage, dignity, beauty, and unconditional love always left an indelible imprint on every life she touched."

Over the past two decades, Snow remained active, releasing several albums, including Rock and Soul Review (1991), P.S. (1995), Good News in Hard Times (1995), I Can't Complain (1998), and Natural Wonders (2003). She also toured extensively throughout North America, Great Britain, Germany, and the Far East, and performed with an impressive list of artists including Jewel, Donald Fagen, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Jackson Browne, Dave Mason, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Boz Scaggs, Cyndi Lauper, Roger Daltry, Chaka Khan, and Mavis Staples.

Following the death of her daughter, Snow contemplated retirement, until Ronstadt, a longtime friend, coaxed her onstage at a few of Ronstadt's concerts. The positive response encouraged Snow to book a set of shows at New York City's Birdland, which were received with glowing reviews. "She still has power to spare, along with a sound that is at once instantly recognizable and technically inimitable," the New York Times reviewer wrote. "You can call her what you want: a rock belter with supersonic high notes ("Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu'), a rhythm and blues shouter insisting on sexual equality ('Do Right Woman, Do Right Man'), or a moody coffee-voiced folk-jazz diva ('Poetry Man'). She is all of the above and everything in between."

"It is a pleasure to bring the extraordinary artist Phoebe Snow back to the region as the final SummerMusic concert of 2008," said Don Roth, the Mondavi Center's executive director. "We are grateful to UC Davis Summer Sessions for making SummerMusic possible."

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com

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