Staff Reviews

Various - Crayon Angel: a Tribute to Judee Sill

Review by Noel Gardner

Anyone on the ground floor for the career of Judee Sill, which effectively lasted for about two years in the early Seventies, would have probably assumed that her two albums were destined to be passed-over bargain-bin staples, along with the vast amount of grandly produced MOR folk-rock spawned in that part of the century. Not so. Sill died of an overdose in 1979, having hopped back on the narcotics she previously kicked to attempt a songwriting career, but in her absence her reputation mushroomed; original pressings of Judee Sill and Heart Food are collector gold, and her status as a kind of cult singer-songwriter’s cult singer-songwriter is lent weight by Crayon Angel, a 15-track tribute CD with some of the most lauded voices in indie, folk and indeed indie-folk.»

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'crayon angel: a tribute to the music of judee sill' features new recordings by beth orton, bill callahan, ron sexsmith, final fantasy, nicolai dunger, marisa nadler & black hole infinity, colossal yes (with members of six organs of admittance and comets onfire), meg baird, frida hyvnen, and daniel rossen of grizzly bear and department of eagles. judee sill was the first artist signed to david geffens asylum records and released two cherished cult lps, 1971s 'judee sill' and1973s 'heart food', before vanishing from the music scene and eventually dying of a drug overdose in north hollywood, california, in1979. though forgotten for years, her music has enjoyed a period of rediscovery since her two studio albums were reissued on cd in2005. in addition to cover versions of songs from sills modest recorded output, 'crayon angel' also features two new sill-penned songs, for which sheet music, but no known original recordings, survive. beth orton brings to life the complex and lovely 'reach for the sky', while bill callahan records the epic slow-burn number 'like a rainbow', a co-write with sills one time boyfriend lal baum (great-grandson ofwizard of oz author l. frank baumhow about that?).
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