#FolkSinger #JazzVocal #PhoebeSnow #PoetryMan
Snow never regretted her decision to put aside music so she could focus on Valerie's care. She was devastated when her daughter, who was not expected to live beyond her toddler years, died in 2007 at 31.
"She was my universe," she told the website PopEntertainment.com that year. "She was the nucleus of everything. I used to wonder, am I missing something? No. I had such a sublime, transcendent experience with my child. She had fulfilled every profound love and intimacy and desire I could have ever dreamed of."
"Phoebe was one of the brightest, funniest and most talented singer-songwriters of all time and, more importantly, a magnificent mother to her late brain-damaged daughter, Valerie, for 31 years.
Phoebe felt that was her greatest accomplishment."
Known as a folk guitarist who made forays into jazz and blues, Snow put her stamp on soul classics such as "Shakey Ground," ''Love Makes a Woman" and "Mercy, Mercy Mercy" on over a half dozen albums.
Snow's defining hit, however, was "Poetry Man," which she wrote herself. The song, anchored by her husky voice and a fluid guitar, was a romantic ode to a married man. It reached the Top 5 on the pop singles chart in 1975 and garnered her a Grammy nomination for the best new artist.
Soon after that, her daughter was born. She was born with hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid in the brain cavity that inhibits brain development. Snow's husband, musician Phil Kearns, left her while Valerie was still a baby.
For years, Snow fought the diagnosis of Valerie's mental condition, but in 1983, she told The New York Times that she had accepted her daughter's fate.
While she was caring for Valerie, her career started to take a downward spiral. Inexperienced in the music business, she broke contracts with record companies and others and found herself embroiled in a number of lawsuits and severe financial problems.
"With my quick success, I didn't have time to learn the ropes of the music business," she told the Times in the same interview. "Because my first record was such a hit, I was terribly spoiled and I thought I couldn't do anything wrong. I was also desperate to make tons of money because of my responsibility to my daughter. And there was no longer any joy in making music."
She started to make her way back into the music business and by the early 1980s was performing shows again. In 1989, she released her first album in eight years, "Something Real." She also supplemented her income doing through the 1980s and into the 1990s by singing the commercial jingle for companies including Michelob, Hallmark, and AT&T.
Snow was born Phoebe Ann Laub to white Jewish parents in New York City in 1950 and raised in Teaneck, N.J. Though many assumed she was black, Snow never claimed African-American ancestry.
She changed her name after seeing Phoebe Snow, an advertising character for a railroad, emblazoned on trains that passed through her hometown. Snow quit college after two years to perform in amateur nights at Greenwich Village folk clubs.
In her later years, Snow continued to make an impact musically. She sang the theme for NBC's "A Different World" and the jingle "Celebrate the Moments of Your Life" for General Foods International Coffees. She also sang at radio host Howard Stern's wedding to Beth Ostrosky in 2008 and for President Bill Clinton, who asked her to perform at Camp David during his presidency.
In 2003, she released "Natural Wonder," her first album of new, original material in 14 years. Her other albums include 1989's "Something Real," and 1981's "Rock Away." In 2008, she released a live album titled "Live" and a best-of CD in 2001.
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