Jane Voss

This respected songwriter and performer began working at folk festivals in the early '70s and has steadily expanded her repertoire to include a variety of musical genres, her reputation and following increasing just as steadily along the way. In 1976, she formed an enduring partnership with swing and ragtime piano player Hoyle Osborne, with whom she has performed and recorded regularly ever since.

She began performing out of a base in San Francisco in 1970, eventually hitting the road for a series of folk festival appearances in the U.S. and Canada several years later. Her early influences were traditional country artists such as the Carter Family, and in her early appearances she became known for her solid interpretations of this type of material. It was a period only a few years before the old-time country genre would begin developing a brand new following, and this has come to be a typical event in the career of this artist. Like many talented performers, she usually has her teeth into some genre or development several years before it becomes popular on a wider scale. Her Bay release entitled An Album of Songs is considered her finest effort in the country field. It was released in 1976, by which time Voss had already begun expanding her fences and was beginning to perform various types of popular songs, as well as jazz and classic blues. She began working with Osborne the same year, also bringing her into the swing territory, which she quickly developed a pleasing feel for. Voss and Osborne have recorded four albums as a duo, including the Green Linnet release Get to the Heart, which won the Stereo Review award for Record of the Year in 1982. The duo released Sparkle and Shine on Front Hall in 1990. Voss and Osborne have been featured on radio programs such as Mountain Stage, Fresh Air, and All Things Considered. She has performed at numerous festivals, including the Great Hudson River Revival, the Mariposa Folk Festival, and the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Her songs, such as "To All My Friends in Far Flung Places" and "Keep in Mind," have been widely recorded by other artists, and she has also appeared as a background vocalist on recordings by folksinger and activist Utah Phillips. In 1985, she collaborated on the song "Visitation 1985" with the brilliant American protest songwriter and singer Malvina Reynolds.