[lalatina15]

Vanessa Carlton Appreciation!

About Vanessa (in her own words):
I was born 8/16/80 and raised in Milford, PA by my parents Ed and Heidi Carlton. My Dad is a pilot (he plays fiddle on the side), and my mom is a pianist and teacher. My childhood was unconventional. When I was two I was enrolled into a Montessori school. I just remember running around and drawing pictures all the time. Music and art were the main focuses of my childhood.

My mom was my first music teacher. I suppose the first sign that I was "musical" came when I figured out "It's A Small World" on the piano when I was two years old. We had just returned from Disneyland. After that, my mother began exposing me to a variety of classical composers, from Eric Satie, to Mozart, to Debussey. At eight, I wrote my first piece of music. I wasn't writing lyrics or anything, just little piano songs.

I was nine when I fell in love with ballet. I was obsessed with it actually. Fortunately my mom made me keep up the piano during that time. At thirteen, I started travelling to New York to study with some of the great ballet dancers and teachers such as Grelsey Kirkland and Madame Nenette Charisse.

At fourteen, I was accepted to study at the School of American Ballet in New York City. I left my family and moved into a dorm at Lincoln Center. I enrolled in the Professional Children's School for high school and began a new life.

The life of a ballet dancer is neither easy nor fair. The pressure is intense and the competition extreme. Surprisingly, I had always been a confident dancer, almost fearless, but as I approached my senior year things began to unravel. I became frustrated and lost. I was on the brink of becoming a professional when everything feel apart. At seventeen feeling broken and isolated, I started writing songs again.

It was the dilapidated piano in the kitchen of my dorm that brought me solace. Sometimes I would skip ballet class to go upstairs and play. All these songs just poured out of me. This time, I wasn't simply writing piano pieces, I was writing lyrics I had always loved to sing growing up, but I never thought of myself as a singer until I sang my lyrics. I put my voice and piano together I couldn't imagine it any other way.

The fall after I graduated I got an apartment with a friend, became a waitress and started playing gigs downtown. A year later, I signed with Interscope, Geffen, A&M Records. source

The Music:
Be Not Nobody

Released in the US (April 30, 2002), Europe (June ?, 2002)
Tracks
01. Ordinary Day
02. Unsung
03. A Thousand Miles
04. Pretty Baby
05. Rinse
06. Sway
07. Paradise
08. Prince
09. Paint it Black
10. Wanted
11. Twilight


Harmonium

Released in the US (November 09, 2004)
01. White Houses
02. Who's to say
03. Annie
04. San Francisco
05. Afterglow
06. Private Radio
07. Half a Week before the Winter
08. C'est la Vie
09. Papa
10. She floats
11. The Wreckage (hidden track)
12. Pleased to meet You (documentary/video)

[BeMyBaby]

She's pretty. 1000 miles is a classic!