Folk/Jazz/Blues Singer Phoebe Snow Passes
Songwriter and guitarist Phoebe Snow, loved for both her songs and her smooth, jazzy vocal style, died Tuesday morning in Edison, N.J., from complications of a brain hemorrhage she suffered in January 2010. She was 58.
Snow enjoyed tremendous success in the early 1970s for her blending of folk, acoustic jazz and blues, including her 1975 hit “Poetry Man” and a Grammy nomination later that year for “best new artist, but then mostly left the spotlight to care for her disabled daughter, has died. But shortly after “Poetry Man” reached the Top 5 on the pop singles, Phoebe’s daughter, Valerie Rose, was born with severe brain damage, and the singer made the decision to care for her at home rather than place her in an institution. (Valerie Rose passed away in 2007.)
Snow was born Phoebe Ann Laub to Jewish parents in New York City in 1952, and raised in Teaneck, N.J. She changed her name after seeing an advertising character for a railroad that passed through her hometown. Her final studio recording, Natural Wonder, was released in 2003 … her first album of new, original material in 14 years. The final of more than a dozen beloved, and critically lauded recordings.
Here’s a video of Phoebe performing her classic “Poetry Man,” from 1989:
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[Corrected: The article originally stated that Phoebe was 60 when she passed, but we have since confirmed her date of birth as 7/17/1952. Phoebe Snow was 58 at the time of her passing.]