Carly Simon

If you don't remember Carly Simon first hand, then you surely remember her as the woman that always took up a few spots in your mother's record collection, probably nestled somewhere alongside Carole King's Tapestry. A singer-songwriter whose star shone brightest in the 1970s -- she was among the most prominent of the confessional bunch during the genre's heyday -- Simon's music was both pleasantly undaunting and mildly shocking in its frankness, and her light piano playing and run-of-the-mill vocals contrasted with her uninhibited lyrics. In the face of increasingly emotional songwriting that's emerged over the years, the sharp-pointed phrases that filled Simon's music seem to have become relatively blunt, and her music now fits perfectly in the tame playlists of Lite Rock radio. But a night spent dusting off her records and listening to her sing of life's trials, tribulations and excesses can revive some of the emotion still contained therein.