Best Female Vocalists Ballads


I am on the lookout to add to my extensive collection of music. It's been a while since I was 'on the lookout' for such.
My favorite music is ballads, male and female. Any suggestions on music spanning, say the past 5 or six years?
Album name AND Artist.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Larry
lrsky
I wasn't going to mention my favorite "new" artist of the past few decades. The last time I recommended her, to the wife of a friend who was looking for a new female artist to like, the feedback I got was that the wife found Iris Dement "so melancholy". Well, so are Bach's Cello Concertos, right? I realized the woman was looking for superficial entertainment, not High Art.
Merle Haggard started telling people about Iris Dement in the mid-90's, so I got her "My Life" album. Holy f#@king sh*t! Her song "No Time To Cry" (which Merle himself recorded, the highest compliment one songwriter can pay another) is the most devastating song I have ever heard in all my 65 years. And it is a ballad, of sorts. She is very well recorded, her Singer-Songwriter/Acoustic/Bluegrass/Traditional Country sound really well captured. She has the best musicians in the world on her records, guys like Jerry Douglas (Alison Krauss) on Dobro and Stuart Duncan on Guitar. I took that album to CES in the late 90's, and as I was listening to NTTC on the Crosby modified Quad 63's, I felt the tears welling up in my eyes, until I could no longer hold them back. Made a fool of myself at CES!
Bdp24,
Ricky Van Shelton, a country music star, sang a song, "I Meant Every Word He Said".
Every time I hear this song, I tear up. Love gained, love lost, and the inevitable moment of truth when it's actually too late for you.
Thanks for sharing a beautiful moment!
Larry
I haven't seen the name Kat Edmundson...(sp?)
She's a clone of Joanie Sommers from the mid sixties.
Great music.
Larry