Carly Simon – Carly Simon (1971)

Apparently Carly released three albums in the mid-sixties with her sister, though as far as I know they are unavailable and nobody really rates them anyway.  This is her first and very accomplished album.  Born to a wealthy Jewish father and a Catholic civil rights activist mother, whose own mother was a slave descendent from Cuba she had a complicated heritage and was raised as a Catholic.  At age eight she developed a stammer, maybe brought on by a sexual encounter with a teenage boy; to help with this she was encouraged to sing – and soon started writing her own songs and learning to play piano, she was also partly dyslexic.  Signed to Elektra in 1970 she began work on this debut.  It was an instant success, ‘That’s The Way I Always Thought It Should Be’ was the lead off single and was a top ten record.  Her voice is both strong and gentle and seems to reflect the meaning and emotion of the words incredibly well.  She went on to have several hit albums and songs well into the current century.  She of course was also married to James Taylor for over a decade.  One of the great singer-songwriters, though her first three albums are by far her best.  On this debut I also like ‘The Best Thing’ and ‘Dan, My Fling’. An excellent debut only diminished by the two Masterpieces which followed closely behind.

Judee Sill – Judee Sill (1971)

It was the best of years….David Geffen had just started Assylum records, and this was the first release; a critical success but failed commercially.  Judee had a tough life, both parents died young and she had an unconventional upbringing.  A teenage rebel she was involved in drugs and even a robbery spree and time in jail.  After reform school she concentrated on her music, combining folk, pop and classical and religious themes.  She was ‘discovered’ by The Turtles, who recorded her song ‘Lady O’ which was a minor hit.  She was also befriended by David Crosby and Graham Nash, Graham producing her first single ‘Jesus Was A Crossmaker’.  Her reluctance to tour, especially as a support act and her continued heroin addiction didn’t help.  Her second and final album ‘Heart Food’ is steeped in religious iconography and has incredible stacked vocals and was produced by Henry Lewy, who was Joni’s producer.  Despite all this both albums flopped and she was dropped by Geffen.  She drifted along and died in 1979, aged just 28 of Heroin overdose.  A sad loss, as since her death she has become a songwriter’s inspiration and almost a cult – similar in ways to Nick Drake.  I adore her two albums – so innovative and standout brilliant.  Best on this debut are ‘Crayon Angels’, ‘Ridge Rider’ and ‘Loping Along The Cosmos’.    

Michelle Shocked – Short Sharp Shocked (1988)

I remember exactly the first time I heard this Artist.  Dad had picked me and my small daughter Lydia up in his car from Wokingham train station and he had the radio on.  The song made me think ‘Wow’ and I listened hard to find out the Artist.  It was Michelle and the great song ‘When I Grow Up’.  This was her second album, although the first – a ‘field recording’ – The Texas Campfire Tapes’ has been disputed by Michelle as not sanctioned by herself.  This was her first intended album – and it surely deserves the title of Brilliant.   There is a maturity both in the songwriting and the singing; apparently she had planned both the sequencing and the songs and the arrangements of her first three albums before entering the studio.  She is a strange mixture – part rebel, part strong Christian, a one-time self-declared lesbian but later accused of homophobia; it seems she has courted controversy often.  She refuses to let her music be played on any of the streaming channels because she argues that they are paid a pittance (which of course they are).  Almost all the music she has released has been superb but she seems to have stopped since 2009 which is a shame.  I actually contacted her by e-mail as she was advertising her own albums, including some rarities on her website for very high prices.  After some discussion and she was satisfied that I was a fan and not going to sell her music to a third party she kindly sent me one-time only downloadable file of two of her rare live albums (only previously available at her concerts).  Hopefully she will resume recording again sometime soon as her voice and songs are unique.  Best on this are ‘Memories of East Texas’ , ‘Making The Run To Gladeville’ and the superb ‘Anchorage’.  She remains one of my desktop artists, always easy to go to.

The Senators – Welcome to my World (1988)

I know nothing about this band as there have been a small number of groups with this name and Wikipedia doesn’t help this time.  I picked up a cheap CD single, as was my habit in the early nineties, in an independent record shop in Soho – it might have been Sister Ray.  Anyway I loved the songs and the group, which seemed to feature 2 guys singing together as a duo.  I carried on and found 3 albums by them eventually – all excellent.  They are brothers Jim and Mick Kitson and Sean Lyons (guitar) – at least Discogs helps with some basic info.  But who cares – the music is all that matters, and this is excellent stuff. Like many bands though this little duo got nowhere, releasing just three albums before calling it a day.  A pity, as they were really good songwriters and singers.  Best on this debut are ‘A Quiet Life’, ‘Little Italy’ and ‘Srange’ – but most of the songs are good.

Seasick Steve – Cheap (2004)

Seasick Steve (real name Steve Leach, then Wold after he took the surname of his wife as his) is a rather strange character, part real bluesman, part invented or exaggerated persona.  His schtick is that of a poor original American blues man but like Dylan before him he has partly invented a more romantic past to fit his later style.  Born in 1951 in Oakland California, he apparently left home as a young teenager in the early Sixties and was a hobo, often travelling the freight trains from town to town.  He was a musician and did join a few bands over the years and was also a record producer, especially in the 80s in Seattle where he was part of the ‘garage’ scene.  Moving to Norway and then later to England where he settled he became Seasick Steve and would intersperse his songs, both live and on record, with tales (imagined or real) of his time as a hobo.  He manufactured some of his guitars out of metal and old bits of wood and plays a sort of tinny picking and rhythm style.  He famously appeared on one of Jools Hollands ‘Hootenanny’ shows and his late in life fame developed after this.  A real character and not a bad artist.  Best songs on this are ‘Sorry Mr. Jesus’, ‘Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde’ and ‘8 Ball’.  Not for the faint-hearted I would say.

Scritti Politti – Songs To Remember (1982)

I was introduced to this record by Louise about the time of it’s release; it was certainly different to anything I had heard before and I really loved it.  I don’t know a lot about the band, except that they were a post-punk left wing collective formed by singer-songwriter Green Gartside (not his real name of course).  The sound is what might be described as lo-fi and concentrating mostly on the singing and the words.  As usual it is the beauty of the songs which make the record successful, my favourites being ‘Asylums in Jerusalem’, ‘Lions After Slumber’ and ‘The Sweetest Girl’.  Despite having heard the album many times I really have little idea what the songs are about – not that that matters as they have a strange beauty in their densely packed lines, ending up as a strangely hypnotic aural wallpaper, each song slipping into the next and creating a pleasing whole.  Green broke up the small band after this album and released more albums in a more disco and soul style which I never got into.  But this one is definitely worth a listen or two

Buffy Sainte-Marie – It’s My Way (1964)

For most of her life Buffy believed she was of Canadian Native American Indian heritage and was adopted at birth and brought up in America; it later transpired that she was born in America.  But her legacy is what is important; she absorbed folk and country music but encouraged and wrote many songs about the awful treatment of Native Americans.  I first heard this album, probably in ’66 or ’67.  One of the older boys in the Lower Sixth brought a copy to school, and I loved it, her strangely warbling voice and mouth harp and remember being struck by the songs ‘Now That The Buffalo’s Gone’ and ‘Universal Soldier’ which was later covered by Donovan.  Of course Buffy went on to have quite a few hits, especially in the mid-Seventies.  Many of her songs have been recorded and were hits by others including Sinatra (Until It’s Time For You To Go) and Jennifer Warnes and Joe Cocker (Up Where We Belong).  She was also a presenter for a while on Sesame Street.  She made a string of albums before retiring in the early 90’s but had a short comeback in this Century.  I am a great fan of hers and couldn’t give a fuck if she was red Indian, American or Canadian – to me she will always be Buffy, the singer and fighter for Indian rights.

Leon Russell – Leon Russell (1970)

I had heard of Leon as part of the Mad Dogs and Englishmen Tour in in 1970.  A deep Southern singer and pianist who had a brilliant voice and almost invented that blend of swamp-blues rock.  He had been a session player for a few years, even playing on a couple of Beach Boys hits.  He was joined on this eponymous album by Eric Clapton, Ringo and George amongst others and it became an instant classic with great songs like ‘A Song For You’ which inspired Elton and Bernie to write ‘Your Song’, and ‘Roll Away The Stone’ and the fabulous ‘Delta Lady’.

His follow-up ‘And The Shelter People’ was even better.  He also famously joined George on ‘The Concert For Bangla-Desh’ – a forerunner to Live Aid.  He continued making music and records and touring until his death in 2016 at age 74, a great loss for one of the all-time greats.

The Rolling Stones – The Rolling Stones (1964)

The group formed in ’62 and after a couple of changes settled on Mick, Keith, Brian, Bill and Charlie.  They were basically a blues band, rehashing old American blues numbers for an increasingly ecstatic audience in London and the Southeast, especially with their residence at Eel Pie Island.  The Beatles had exploded on the scene in ’63 and smart new entrepreneurial young guys were looking for bands to make records.  Andrew Loog Oldham became the boys manager and helped them get a record contract with Decca, who had famously rejected the Fabs.  This first album with it’s moody cover was the result; mostly blues covers from their live act with only one Jagger/Richards composition – the quite poppy ‘Tell Me’.  Still they have a raw and exciting sound.  I first heard this record as a thirteen year old at Haughley Youth Club and this was the first time I heard numbers like ‘Route 66’ and ‘Walking The Dog’ though I had heard ‘Carol’ as sung by The Beatles.  This was a really feel-good record and still brings a smile to my face, even though I didn’t get round to buying a copy until the mid-Seventies.  Strangely it has an almost timeless quality, as most of the songs are classics anyway.  The boys were almost instantly popular and soon developed their sound into a more pop-rock sound.  They were of course, and still remain almost an institution.  But a pretty good debut album too.

Robbie Robertson – Robbie Robertson (1987)

Long after the furore of backing Dylan in his first Electric Rebellion as lead guitarist in The Band, and quite a while after that group officially ended in ’78 he ventured on a solo career.  And this resulting self-titled album is quite stunning; a completely different sound than the folk-rock of The Band.  No surprise that the main producer was Daniel Lanois, whose signature wash of background hum is all over the record.  But as usual, it is actually the songs which make the record so good.  A couple of tracks are half spoken but Robbie’s voice is subtle and raging in parts, a lovely mix of moods.  Best songs are ’Broken Arrow’, ‘Somewhere Down The Crazy River’ and ‘Fallen Angel.’  Robbie released a handful of solo albums and took a profound interest in Native American music.  He sadly died in 2023.