Judee Sill has never found the mainstream recognition to the height of her talent. It didn’t prevent her to influence Warren Zevon, Andy Partridge from XTC, Liz Phair, Beth Orton, Bill Callahan, Bonnie Prince Billy and many others.

The life of this American born in 1944 in Los Angeles wasn’t the easiest. A rebellious teen, she tried heroin, committed a few armed robberies and ended up in correctional. A relatively violent period that allowed her to discover, when she was a church organist, her musical sensitivity, notably toward gospel. In parallel with her LSD trips, she joined a jazz trio and married pianist Robert Maurice “Bob” Harris. Their marriage will be orchestrated by drugs and addictions.

The adventures continued for Sill in 1966. She spent time in prison again then learned about the sudden death of her brother Dennis. All these turbulent incidents incited her to get to work and compose her songs. She went on tour with Graham Nash and David Crosby, for whom she often was the opening act and released in 1971 a first eponymous album on David Geffen’s label.

A second would follow, two years later, called Heart Food. Unfortunately, her career never really took off. She progressively fell into oblivion and died of an overdose in 1979. A life and a fate that really don’t seem to apply to her as soon as you listen to her.

Everything in Judee Sill is in complete opposition to the violence that has filled her life. A pure and angelic voice. A face that advocates innocence. On a divine folk, she sings about love, hope and rebirth with sophisticated genius. Master of sweet lullabies, she slides with ease on poetic phrasings and shares with tender and warm kisses her cosmic aspirations. Songs of Rapture and Redemption: Rarities & Live is a collection of 19 tracks containing demos and brand new recordings as well as remastered arrangements. Sill indulges in clarifications in numerous lives and provokes immediate shivers on the demo of The Kiss.

Torn between folk and gospel, Songs of Rapture and Redemption: Rarities & Live is a rare piece whose titles had moved her producer Henry Lewy in the early days of the singer’s career. Almost 40 years after her death, we discover once again her concert performances at the Boston Music Hall and notably one of her greatest songs, made popular by the Turtles, Lady-O.

Judee Sill - The Kiss

donmussell12

Judee Sill - The Pearl

Mettz Musik

LISTEN TO SONGS OF RAPTURE AND REDEMPTION OF JUDEE SILL ON QOBUZ

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