Marshall shows star quality
By Ted Shaw, The Windsor Star, May 21st 1997
She's been on U.S. talk shows and around the world.
She's been talked about by rock royalty.
Now Windsor has experienced Amanda Marshall. At least, the 1,100 or so at Cleary Tuesday.
The big-voiced, big-haired singer from Toronto hit the Rose City like a summer storm.
With a stage show that's all bluster and a performing style that gives no quarter, Marshall shows every sign of
being Canada's next-big-thing after that other singer whose initials are A.M., Alanis Morissette.
Marshall's self-titled album has been kicking around since the fall of 1995. But it's only since Elton John mentioned her on Rosie O'Donnell's talk show last fall that her stock rose dramatically.
Since then, she has appeared on Regis & Kathie Lee, the Juno Awards, and she has toured with pop heavyweights, Tears For Fears and John Mellencamp. (Her Mellencamp tour will bring her back to the area June 20 at Pine Knob.)
She's working on her fifth single in Canada, Dark Horse, which was duly delivered Tuesday night.
The show also featured her other major hits -- Fall From Grace, Birmingham, Let's Get Lost, Trust Me (This Is
Love), Sitting On Top Of The World, and Promises.
But the times she made you sit up and take notice were the covers.
She sang a 30-year-old Jimi Hendrix ballad, Castles Made of Sand, that got a roar of approval from the audience. It was more Aretha Franklin than Hendrix, but the approach suited the material well.
Everything you've heard, or may have seen on the Junos, is true. Marshall wears her emotions on her sleeve when she sings. Her hands are always moving, accentuating a phrase, visualizing a downbeat or a crescendo, like Joe Cocker.
And, yes, she's got Janis Joplin's enthusiasm. But what's amazing is the resiliency of her voice despite the strain she puts on it in performance.
The opener, Chantal Kerviazuk, is Marshall's direct counterpoint, an introspective keyboard player who blends
Rickie Lee Jones with Billy Joel. Her song, The Way God Made Me, is I Am Woman for the '90s.