This is hard to describe, but I will try.
To me, on this subject, its not about who has the 'best' voice. They are all very good. But its about the individual characteristics of the ladies and also the image they present. I differentiate Lisa on 2 things with her voice. First, she has a lot of strength in it. She can not only hit and hold high notes, but she does so with authority. Yet its also very feminine. Sometimes when people say strength, thats viewed as bad for some reason when a lady gets labeled as strong. But it works with Lisa.
Think of the reverse with men. If a man is said to have a 'soft' voice, its viewed as a negative by some. But if a guy has a strong yet soft voice, he can produce an excellent sound. For example, I recently read a review for a Carrie Underwood concert. I posted the link in another thread (cant rememebr now which one lol) for a different reason. But I mention it here because of how the reviewer described Carrie's opening act, country star Josh Turner. He described his voice as "deep as a cavern yet soft as butter". Thats a great way to put it, if you know who he is and have heard his stuff.
But Lisa has sort of the same thing. A combo of power and grace. Yes sounds cliche I know, but the way it balances is different from the other ladies. I doubt we would say Chloe or Orla has 'power'. They certainly have great voices, but not the combination of power with quality.
Lisa also has an appearance of being strong, fit, yet feminie. Its sort of the same characteristics as her voice. The visual sort of fits the vocal. Unlike, say, Celine Dion or Christina Agulara or Martina McBride. The visual, petite little ladies, doesnt fit the power and strength of the voice. Thats not necessarily a bad thing though. maybe its even good. I guess its your point of view.
But to do the types of songs on those piano solos, I think you need someone who projects an image thats consistant with the sound. Maybe thats why it works.
Also, one needs to look at the difference between singing with a full band accompanyment and just piano. With the full band, if a vocalist does not have 'power' it can come from one of many other sources : drums, bass, horns maybe, etc. The voice is just one of maybe a dozen sounds in the whole. But with just piano, since piano does NOT always provide 'power' , 'strength' etc, it HAS to come from the voice of the vocalist, since there are only 2 sources of sounds, piano & voice.
You nailed it right on the head. Both Meav and Lisa remind me of my favorite female vocalist of the 70s Karen Carpenter. But of the two I'd have to say that our lovely Lisa is a little bit closer to Karen's incredable voice. Yes, I know Karen had a lower range then Lisa though she could hit those high notes when she wanted too. Likewise I'd bet Lisa could do likewise and hit those low notes. Both Karen and Lisa have clear smooth voices. They'd have made a great duet. When I listen to Karen's voice even today I feel a pang of sadness that we lost such a incredable talent so young. But at least we have singer with her same talent and intensity. Karen also did very well with the piano. Some of their greastest hits were duetsbetween she and Richard. I believe David posses the same talent that Richard Carpenter did and still does. It would be awesome for them to get together and do rendictions of the Carpenter's greatest hits. I'd love to hear them do Rainy Days and Mondays and the Carpenter's signature song We've Only Just Begun. One her old forum before it went TU Lisa responed to a question about she and Karen that she was higly flattered and use to listen to Karen's music even as a toddler.
