Early Career
Poe began experimenting with musical samplers and sequencers as a teenager. Noteworthy are her early collaborations with J Dilla (AKA James Yancey, Jay Dee,) of Slum Village. Poe’s musical influences ranged “from Black Flag to Bob Dylan -- from Billy Holiday to Tribe Called Quest” according to music writer Stephen Grecco.
Poe was signed to Modern/Atlantic Records in 1994 on the strength of the demos she made with J-Dilla and RJ Rice in RJ’s living room in Detroit.
On January 28, 1996, ‘’The New York Times Arts and Leisure Section’’ named Poe, along with Alanis Morissette, among the defining voices of a the current “movement in music” which featured “angry” female artists who were “...articulate, sexually explicit, both lover and fighter...(women who) reject self pity and refuse to define themselves purely in terms of their connection to men.” In September 1996, ‘’Glamour Magazine’’ published a picture of Poe, with a snarl on her face and wearing a tee-shirt on which she’d written the words, “Happy-Well-Adjusted Female.” In the accompanying interview, Poe says “I don’t think ‘Angry’ really sums it up at all!” In the November 14, 1996 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine (issue 747) Poe’s album, “Hello,” attained a position on the Reader’s Top Ten Chart. and in August 1997, Esquire Magazine (vol. 128 no. 2) named Poe, along with Gwen Stefani, Lil’ Kim, and Sarah McLachlan among the top 5 “Women Who Rock Our World”.
Poe began her first major tour in January 1996, as the opening act for Lenny Kravitz. She and her touring band (Daris Adkins on Guitar, Dan Marfisi “Jones” on Drums, Toby Skard on bass/ and Cameron Stone on cello) then continued touring extensively as headliners and at festivals until 1999, when she stopped to begin pre-production on her second album for Atlantic. Pollstar Magazine reported in 1998 that Poe had performed for approximately 600 shows in a two-year time period.
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