Snow was described by The New York Times as a "contralto grounded in a bluesy growl and capable of sweeping over four octaves.
It was at the Bitter End club in 1972 that Denny Cordell, a promotions executive for Shelter Records, was so taken by the singer that he signed her to the label and produced her first recording. She released an eponymous album, Phoebe Snow, in 1974. Featuring guest performances by The Persuasions, Zoot Sims, Teddy Wilson, David Bromberg and Dave Mason, Snow's album became one of the most acclaimed debut recordings of the era. It spawned the Billboard Hot 100 #5 hit single, "Poetry Man," reached number 4 on the Billboard 200 album chart, won Snow a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and established her as a formidable singer/songwriter. The cover of Rolling Stone magazine followed, while she performed as the opening act for tours by Jackson Browne and Paul Simon (with whom she recorded the hit single "Gone at Last" in 1975). 1975 also brought the first of several appearances as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live, on which Snow performed both solo and in duets with Paul Simon and Linda Ronstadt. During the 1975 appearance, she was seven months pregnant with her daughter.
Snow was raised in a household where Delta blues, Broadway show tunes, Dixieland jazz, classical music and folk music recordings were played around the clock. Her father, Merrill Laub, was an exterminator by trade, had an encyclopedic knowledge of American film and theater and was an avid collector and restorer of antiques. Her mother, Lili, was a dance teacher who had danced with the Martha Graham group at one time.
Her mother died after a 12-year struggle with bone cancer. She grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey and graduated from Teaneck High School. She subsequently attended Shimer College in Mount Carroll, Illinois, but did not graduate. As a teenager, she carried her prized Martin 00018 acoustic guitar from club to club around Greenwich Village, playing and singing on amateur nights. Her stage name is the same as a fictional advertising character created in the early 1900s for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, a young woman named Phoebe Snow, who appeared on boxcars traveling near her hometown.
She was briefly married to Phil Kearns, and, in December 1975, gave birth to a severely brain-injured daughter, Valerie. Snow resolved not to institutionalize her but instead care for her at home, which she did until Valerie died on March 18, 2007 at the age of 31. Snow's efforts to care for Valerie greatly and negatively affected her professional career, nearly ending it; it also adversely affected her personal life.
Snow continued to take voice lessons, and she studied opera informally.
Snow suffered a brain hemorrhage on January 19, 2010 and underwent surgery. She was placed in a medically induced coma, regaining consciousness only briefly. She died on April 26, 2011.