...is another man's "Essential Artist".

If you take the sum total of all the stuff I have in my library by Tom Russell, Todd Snider, James McMurty, Dave Alvin and Chuck Prophet, then you have a signficant proportion of my music collection.

is really worth spending time getting to know. Musical prodigy, wrote songs at 19 like Stoney End that major stars recorded. But the real joy is in her and her songs - fusion of doo-wap, soul,jazz, pop and her beautiful voice, often wild and abandoned, later more reined in but still lovely.

Here is a song I particularly like,'I am the Blues'. It's from a later album, 'Smile' but her earlier albums recorded in the late 60's and early 70's 'Eli and the 13th Confession', 'New York Tenderberry' and 'Christmas and the Beads of Sweat' are generally her most praised ones and show her in her uninhibited glory. 'Eli' is probably the most accessible one.

I love the man