Jewel. Rule of four applies here. That's why I bought Pieces of You. Spirit I'm not as impressed with. Having bad teeth is so uncommon in the US that Jewel stands out a bit because of that weird tooth she has off to the side of her mouth where at least it's hard to spot. I read she's written a couple hundred songs and she does have have a lot of creativity in her, even if her poetry book tanked.

Chantal Kreviazuk. Providence, the television show. Chantal sings the opening song and she does it so well that I was impelled to find out who sings the song and I bought her first album. When I listened to the album I realized that several of the songs I'd heard on Alice. She also sounds a lot different on her album than on that song in Providence.

Huey Lewis and the News. Another oldie. The first music I bought was a mistake because I meant for Steph to buy me Sports but she got me Picture This. Still, it's a good album. For a decade Huey Lewis was *the* Bay Area music celebrity. Although he hasn't done a new album in years, at least he's keeping active as his role in Duets attests to. You know, I had the first Huey Lewis album (it was an LP record) but I tossed it and haven't been able to find it since.

Martika. Another teenage crush. I used to have this on a cassette tape but it was slightly too long so the last song cut off in the middle. Even now when I listen to the CD I expect the last song to be cut off. Martika is working on a third album, the second album didn't do too well. I didn't even know about it until I put her on the list and looked up what she had done.

Martina McBride. So, I got into country music. Started watching some things on television. A year ago I didn't get VH1 Country nor CMT. But there was CMC which ran for two hours a day and was hosted by a local DJ from KYCY. Some of the videos shown were Martina McBride's, and the video that really caught my attention was "Independence Day". They played it like every day (I think because Emotion had just come out so they were playing a lot of Martina videos and "Independence Day" is one of her most popular songs). The other video I saw a bunch of was "I Love You" which was #1 for 5 weeks in the country music charts. Right then that's when I decided to buy her CDs.

Mindy McCready. Never hear her songs on the radio, rarely has a video played on VH1 Country, has three CDs out. Why the heck did I decide to buy her CDs? The answer is I saw the video for "Guys Do It All the Time" once. It's not an exceptional video but it is a captivating song. Very much a "guys do all these obnoxious things, why can't girls do it too?" sort of sentiment.

Sarah McLachlan. Yes, she has a lot of good songs and organized the Lilith Fair. Lots of CDs, played constantly on Alice and the other AC radio stations I listen to, but that wasn't enough. When Surfacing came out VH1 played "Possession" constantly. Every hour, maybe more than that. This was back when I taped the three hours when VH1 actually plays videos instead of the stupid shows they now have. That's what hooked me.

Natalie Merchant. Well, this extends from 10,000 Maniacs. Her first CD was good, the next CD was not so good. Her CD's now come in these cardboard CD holders which are smaller than jewel cases. That's kind of annoying as it doesn't fit right. She left 10000 Maniacs because they wanted to change their musical style. Since the last two Maniacs CDs were not good, I guess she was right and they were wrong.

Alannah Myles. "Black Velvet" is a smooth song that KIOI played when I was going to college. I remember listening to it on my walkman as I walked to class. That's the only one of her songs I've ever heard on the radio, and I'm not even sure I remember seeing her video. I remember Alannah performing on the Arsenio Hall show. She did a sultry rendition of one of her songs. A couple of years later I buy the CDs. She has four CDs, including a Best Of with a couple of new songs. Hasn't done anything in the last couple of years and no real web site so I have no info.