Sadie’s Favourite Albums #5: WILDFLOWERS by Judy Collins
Judy Collins’ album WILDFLOWERS came into my life around the age of 14. Again i can’t remember quite how or who it came from – a friend of my parents or maybe my brother – but suddenly it was there… The beauty and elegance of her voice, the sheer force of it! To be able to combine such fragility and power and pain and comfort in one voice was to me both inspiring and incredible.
I had just started to get seriously into my singing and playing and the songs were like food to me. Every one a little art house film in my head. ‘Michael From Mountains’ and the Sisters Of Mercy – I could see them all so clearly!
The reason for this, i think, is Judy’s rare ability to let the songs sing through her. The respect and attention she gives to every word and the way the instruments on the album are so brilliantly arranged around her voice in order to support that, is what makes it a classic album.
Earlier this year i had the privilege of opening for Judy at The Jazz Café in London. For me it was like a fairy tale dream come true – to get to share the stage with someone you had sat in your bedroom and listened endlessly to as a teenager!!
And may i say that when I met her she was just as elegant and gracious as i had expected her to be.
Portobello Acoustic Sessions [MySpace|Facebook] take place in The Lounge upstairs at The Metropolitan and are completely free. Come and join us for dinner, (food served until 10.30pm), or just come and have a drink, sit back, relax and enjoy some of the best music London has to offer.
The Lounge doors open at 7.30pm, however the Metropolitan downstairs is open for food and drink all day long. With four brilliant and inspiring artists at every Portobello Acoustic Session..why would you want to be anywhere else?
Address
Portobello Acoustic Sessions take place at
The Lounge @ The Metropolitan, 60 Great Western Road, W11 1AB
just a very wee walk from Portobello Road
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About
Portobello Acoustic Sessions at the Metropolitan are dedicated to bringing you the very best in singer and songwriter talent and has become a hub of exciting new music and brightest emerging stars. The experience is one that’s truly special and one that you won’t forget. The beautiful Lounge upstairs at the Met is complete with gorgeous wooden floors and furniture, large windows with velvet drapes and an open fire..it also has a spectacular decked roof terrace overlooking the pretty streets of Notting Hill. The Met is one of the most twinkly and intimate acoustic places to play in London. With its beautiful sound and atmosphere, it is a true gem in one of London’s most urban and vibrant locations.
This album appeared in my tape player around the age of 15… God knows how!?
It was a copy someone had made for me (probably my friend Tash) on an old TDK tape that kept breaking and I had to keep fixing with sellotape. I had pretty good editing skills for a 15 yr old girl!
it was the heady days of teenagedom. The hormones were seriously kicking in and i was falling in and out of love on a weekly basis, sitting around in my little bedroom smoking rollies and dreaming about boys when i should of been revising.
Joan Armatrading’s songs were a kind of lighthouse in those rough hormonal seas… whether you were drowning in the depths of despair or riding high on the heady waves of first love, the songs worked either way – guiding you back to shore, bringing you home.
Last year i was very fortunate to be invited on to Dave Fanning’s classic album show on Ireland’s RTE, where musicians talk about albums that have had a seminal influence on themselves and their work. I chose this album because it is genius…. and so is she.
I cant really remember when this album hit my consciousness… it is so deeply embedded in my psyche and my musical history it almost feels like its always been there… like i came out of the womb humming it.
My first memory about it is being told by someone that the whole album was recorded in one night in New York… that Van just gathered up a load of jazz musicians and played each song one after the other, keeping the tapes rolling. I was very impressed with this story and fantasised elaborate scenarios in my mind about how i could of been involved in the session…
… backing vocalist?
… girlfriend?
… coffee maker?
… then a time later i heard that it took one week, which was a bit disappointing but probably much more realistic… does anyone know?
I also remember knowing the first few times i heard it that its sound was completely unique, something no-one had ever done before. No-one told me this. I just knew it, even with my limited knowledge of music.
It is one of those albums that hits upon such a rare and new recipe of sounds and rhythms that it pretty much defines a new genre of music – somewhere between jazz , folk, Irish trad and 60′s psychedelic.
It is a trip, a journey, a train you ride, swept along on its ever changing rhythm with Van’s Buddha-like stream of consciousness lullabying in your ears …. between the viaducts of your dreams.
