Judy Collins [Fires Of Eden]
A disc i picked up second hand cheap, a real shot in the dark this one, i had never heard of Judy Collins before, some of these things can be a major miss, not a great album, but early in my listening of it [1993], i was very impressed with the long opening track 'The Blizzard', plus Collins isn't merely some cover Artist, she really can write songs too, and a good half of the tracks here come from her own pen, i must admit there's a simplicity here, she doesn't write what i would call Adult Rock, she can border on the edge of Easy Listening, and yet her music is certainly more sophisticated than that, at the same time she doesn't want me to go out and explore all her other albums, she's quite an anomaly, but this is how my music collection / library is made up, of single discs of numerous Artists, rather than a 'buy everything they ever issued' type of guy, her song 'Send In The Clouds' [not on here] is a tremendous piece of music [though composed by Sondheim], it was good to revisit this disc today.
Judy Collins is American, and wow she's now 73, i thought she was in her sixties, she recorded this disc in 1990, the photography is by Kip Meyers, and i just love the front cover photo, a nice portrait caught on the wing, almost a monotone black & white shot, and the black lettering in the corners is nicely placed, a good visual product.
The two tracks i love are 1 & 5, and it's the fifth which is tremendous, called 'Home Before Dark', the lyrics are meaningful, the intro suggests a piano driven ballad, but it soon turns into a gently strumming acoustic number, Collins's voice is a high soprano, lovely and sweet, the tune is so superb, and the verses have that gorgeous eternal nature about them, the second verse brings in what sounds like a mandolin, but it's really a synthesiser [1:09+], it adds a delicious layer to the verse, just loved this today.
Here's Judy Collins singing 'Home Before Dark' live on YouTube.
Judy Collins is American, and wow she's now 73, i thought she was in her sixties, she recorded this disc in 1990, the photography is by Kip Meyers, and i just love the front cover photo, a nice portrait caught on the wing, almost a monotone black & white shot, and the black lettering in the corners is nicely placed, a good visual product.
The two tracks i love are 1 & 5, and it's the fifth which is tremendous, called 'Home Before Dark', the lyrics are meaningful, the intro suggests a piano driven ballad, but it soon turns into a gently strumming acoustic number, Collins's voice is a high soprano, lovely and sweet, the tune is so superb, and the verses have that gorgeous eternal nature about them, the second verse brings in what sounds like a mandolin, but it's really a synthesiser [1:09+], it adds a delicious layer to the verse, just loved this today.
Here's Judy Collins singing 'Home Before Dark' live on YouTube.
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