The New Rolling Stone Record Guide described the singer-songwriter Phoebe Snow, who has died aged 60 from complications following a brain haemorrhage, as "one of the most gifted voices of her generation". She released more than a dozen albums during her lifetime, yet never fulfilled the promise of her self-titled debut LP, which featured her signature song, Poetry Man, a No 5 hit single in the US in 1975. Nevertheless, Snow was held in high regard by musicians of her era.
She was born Phoebe Ann Laub in New York and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. Her mother, Lili Grossman, was a former dancer with Martha Graham's company and had married Merrill Laub, an entertainer turned pest exterminator, who also restored antiques.
Snow studied the piano but switched to the guitar in her teens. "I wanted to be the greatest woman guitarist alive," she said. In the early 1970s she began playing in Greenwich Village. Although afflicted with severe stage fright, she possessed an awesome four-octave voice ranging over folk, pop, jazz and blues. She renamed herself after a fictional Phoebe Snow, who featured in advertisements for a local railway.
Snow signed to Leon Russell's Shelter label and released her debut album in 1974. The chart success of Poetry Man, distinguished by Snow's smoky voice and fluent guitar-playing, helped the album reach No 4 in the US, and she was nominated for a Grammy for best new artist. She appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone and was feted as one of the most promising singer-songwriters of the era, touring as an opening act for both Jackson Browne and Paul Simon.
She featured prominently on Simon's 1975 single Gone at Last and also sang back-up vocals on his hit 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. Snow moved to Columbia Records and her album Second Childhood (1976) went gold, but it lacked a hit single. In the late 1970s she released the albums Never Letting Go and Against the Grain – one track, Every Night, was a top 40 hit in the UK in 1979 – but she slipped out of view after releasing the album Rock Away (1981).
Part of the problem was that Snow's eclectic musical tastes had made her difficult to pigeonhole and market. More significant was the arrival of her daughter, Valerie, in 1975, who was born with hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain). Snow and her husband, the musician Phil Kearns, separated and Snow combined looking after Valerie with recording new material.
"With my quick success, I didn't have time to learn the ropes of the music business," she told the New York Times. "Because my first record was such a hit, I was terribly spoiled and thought I couldn't do anything wrong. I was also desperate to make tonnes of money because of my responsibility to my daughter. And there was no longer any joy in making music."
Her situation was further complicated by breach-of-contract lawsuits. She released a new album, Something Real, in 1989 and performed as part of the New York Rock and Soul Revue, a stellar ensemble put together by Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, featuring Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald. She appeared on the group's 1991 live album.
In 1994 she sang at the 25th anniversary of the Woodstock festival as part of a group including Mavis Staples, Thelma Houston and CeCe Peniston. During the 80s and 90s she sang on commercials and was a regular guest on Howard Stern's radio show. She performed at Stern's wedding in 2008 and also sang for President Bill Clinton at Camp David. In 2003 she released Natural Wonder, her first album of new material for 14 years. A live album was released in 2008.
Valerie died in 2007, aged 31. "She was my universe," said Snow. "She had fulfilled every profound love and intimacy and desire I could ever have dreamed of."
She is survived by her sister, Julie.