“It’s a tribute to my daughter. It’s a love letter to my daughter.”

So says legendary chanteuse Phoebe Snow of her latest aural offering, "Live." Her daughter, Valerie, died last year at the age of 31, and Snow hasn’t been the same since. And who can blame her? No mother wants to bury her daughter, especially a daughter with whom she lived her entire life. Though their time together may have been short, the two women formed a bond that defies definition. In fact, Snow can only describe their relationship with eight words: “We were madly in love with each other.” Despite her heartbreak and months of anguish, Snow’s determined to find new life in this new album – and a few other projects. Here she tells us how she’s coping, debates the virtues of therapy, and explains why she’ll always respect Miley Cyrus.

wOw: Hi Phoebe!

Phoebe: I made it. I’m a little late. Sorry.

wOw: That’s OK. It’s only four minutes. I draw the line at five. So you’re lucky. Happy New Year.

Phoebe: Yeah. Happy New Year. Happy whatever.

wOw: Yeah, 2009. All that. All right, let’s start this conversation a few New Years ago, when you were a child. I understand that you always had music in your household, but what is the first song or record that you remember clearly?

Phoebe: That’s a great question. Probably Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti.”

wOw: Yeah?

Phoebe: Swear.

wOw: Did you know that you wanted to be a singer from day one?

Phoebe: To be fair, yes. Well, not a singer necessarily. I just knew I wanted to have something to do with whatever that exciting thing was. But there was another really transitional moment when I was a little older, when I think my father took me to City Center to see “Porgy and Bess.”

wOw: Oh, yes!

Phoebe: And I heard the overture and I had the same feeling of like, “Wow.” And, this is true, I turned to my father – I was probably about five or six years old – and I said, “Dad, I think I know what I want to do when I grow up.” I swear. It’s a true thing.

wOw: Was it the fact that you felt like you had something to say or that you wanted to entertain people? Because, you know, people go into the arts for different reasons.

Phoebe: Whatever that sound was that I was hearing, I wanted to contribute to it. I guess I didn’t even think of it in terms of entertaining or making a statement. So, if I had to pick one of those two things it’d probably be more like saying something, you know?

wOw: Who really influenced you, other than Little Richard?

Phoebe: Well, when I really started to get into it and really started to have a musical instrument, which was a guitar that I practiced every day, I would have to say that the really influential thing would be these great old blues record reissues, like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Big Bill Broonzy. Some of these people, a lot of people now don’t even know about. But Willie Dixon – you’ve certainly heard of Willie Dixon.

wOw: Yep. Fats Domino, maybe?

Phoebe: Yeah, absolutely. And all of that great R & B-like rock stuff that was just — you know, it was kind of a predecessor to what we call rock and roll now. Chuck Berry, you know, all of those …

wOw: Of course! I love Chuck Berry.

Phoebe: We couldn’t be here without Chuck Berry.