Singers with Unique Voices That I Wish Were Still Making Music (The Unique Voices Club #38)

Every Friday, I write a post about singers with unique voices not commonly heard in mainstream music in an effort to educate emerging artists and music lovers and inspire them to embrace their own quirks. This week I've got a little something special seeing as this is the last post for 2025.

2025 is almost over. It feels really weird that we transformed this from a college radio program into a blog only about ten months ago since it feels like I've been curating songs for this for years. I have, but now people that aren't related to me read this. So thank you, dear readers, for being the starting point of this project. We're on to creating bigger things for this next year. Stay tuned.

Seeing as next Friday is the day after Christmas and after that is 2026, this will be the last post of 2025. So I decided to do something special this week on The Unique Voices Club. Back when this was a radio show in 2017 roughly, we had a whole rotation of artists from singing competitions and wherever else I discovered them that were regularly releasing new material. Only they haven't really since then. But I still play them occasionally. They deserve to be known by you and learned from. I mean, the Beatles haven't been a thing since 1970 and people still learn from them. So here's some of my list:

1. Krista Hughes: She has this deep, guttural, almost bluesy type of country voice that sounds like it came out of the time of Willy Nelson. She does live performances around her state of West Virginia and Facebook lives from time to time, but she's a registered nurse now.

2. Korin Bukowski: Like me, she's classically trained but if you heard the releases she has, you wouldn't think so. She first came into my realm of knowledge as a bespectacled pre-med student with long hair that Adam Levine dubbed "cool" because of her quirky adorkability and distinctive tone.

3. Evan McKeel: I especially like his acoustic albums Live Session No. 1 and Teal, which came out a bit after he was on The Voice (and are the only ones to date). He sounds a little like Stevie Wonder (he seamlessly went into one of his songs after his audition with an alt-rock song), save for the rasp and accent.

4. Lelia Broussard: She had the indie voice before the indie voice became popular in pop music (blech). Listening to her, her sounds seems to be made of glottal stops and squeaks and some of it coming from the back of her throat, but she can belt and have dynamics as well. Thankfully Blake Shelton gave her a shot because apart from Michael Bublé they seem to be less appreciative of indie voices.

5. Darby (Anne) Walker: At first listen you may think she sounds like Florence Welch but where she differs from Florence is a raspy belt and squeaky breaks (and more breaks in general than Florence utilizes). Even if she reminds me of Bastille, she's released a blues song called Take Me Back Blue and covered a lot of older songs. So she's kind of from the hippie era.

6. Ehlie Luna: The daughter of immigrants, she's a makeup artist now. But the one song she does have on Spotify is a RnB, hip-hop electronic hybrid.

7. Wrestlerish: The South African-originated alt-rock band broke up in 2014. But we should take some pointers from the country as far as indie bands like the Parlotones making it big there without the need of a major label. I'm taken back to my childhood listening to some of Wrestlerish's songs and am realizing that they approach folk music in a different way than is in American music.

8. The Flesh Eaters: I don't even listen to heavy metal rock but the lead singer's warbly voice that is more drunken scream and talk-chanting like Bob Dylan than anything else definitely got my attention. They haven't released anything since 2019 though, even if they've been around since the 80s.

9. Ex Hex: Watching the music video for "Waterfall" makes me feel like I'm watching a B-52s promo. Mary Timony's voice is dripping with reverb and layering effects along with a limited range and monotonal, talking kind of quality. She's been around since the 90s though in various indie bands so go check out her other offerings.

10. ChianoSky: She released her first song when I was still in grade school and I will admit she's a bit of an acquired taste although she's grown on me. She has a bit of a jazzy quality, but with a lot of squeaks and a weak, raspy belt and a nasally quality. Another one from South Africa.

11. Kaleigh Glanton: Her voice has a kind of reedy/stringy quality, kind of like a viola sound coming from the back of her throat, complete with yodels and flips into her falsetto. She has a YouTube video of one original song called "Stupid Love," but honestly I wish there were more.

12. Bria Kelly: Bria came from the same season of The Voice as Kaleigh and was basically Janis Joplin reincarnated in terms of vocal power and stage presence even if she started out playing country music. The rest of her dynamics outside of her raspy roar are glassy with diction like ___. She's a graphic designer now, but she should release more music because she was certainly a frontrunner on TV.

That is all I have for this list right now. Hopefully it doesn't expand further. I've learned from every artist on this list in some way throughout my whole artistic career, and maybe you or some other wannabe artist you know will too. Remember to listen to these artists' music/releases, sign up for the Patreon so that you can contribute to the plethora of unique voices that are shifting the status quo of the music industry, and lastly, have a happy holiday season.

Stay educated,

Alexia

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