Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the pain of truth will not be denied, January 31, 1999
I met Judy Roderick in 1965, and we married in a small church service in Fayetteville N.C, the next year. from then until around 1976, we discovered that we wrote good songs together, some of which have been recorded by Judy in 1971, on a little known rock album called 'Nevada Jukebox" with our band, 60,000,000 buffalo. Tim and Mollie O'Brien have also been gracious enough to record us too. There are various demo tapes of Judy singing some of these compositions, but here's the point. No white woman I know ever sang a whole album the way Judy sang "Woman Blue". Not Bonnie Raitt, not Ronstadt. Nobody. And I make no apologies for this assessment. It is a perfect album, made so by Artie Traum, Russ Savakus,Paul Griffin,Dick Weissman,the amazing acoustics of the "hotel" studio used by Vanguard, plus the songs, and her incredible, inflective voice, and if you hadn't noticed, extremely stylized guitar playing. The real secret though, is that Judy lived these songs in her own life. she wasn't pretending to be Memphis Minnie, she was reading you her diary. I know. Finally, it is sad that so few know this album and some of her later songs, but Judy did not want to be famous. period. I wish you could have heard her live at the Cafe Au Go Go. Rest in Peace. With the exclusion of the outtakes on the cd release, it would still be perfect.
|
|
|
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beauty, ahead of her time, July 10, 1998
I was in love with this album in the mid 60's, when I was Young & Impressionable. The LP disappeared during some move at some time in my life, and I was very excited to learn it had come out in CD recently. Judy Roderwick was a student at Colorado University when she recorded this album, along with a couple of brilliant side musicians. While, 30 years later, some of the songs seem politically incorrect -- she's a "white girl" singing "Black & Blue", for example, and those old blues tunes do tend to be somewhat misogynistic in nature -- the brilliance of the late Ms. Roderick's surprisingly mature voice, and the passion of her performance makes this more than simply a musical sample of 60's coffeehouse folk; it's a real treasure and she will never be duplicated. It's hard to believe that she was only 22 or so when it was recorded, it is so simply sophisticated and moving.
|
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Late Great Judy, August 29, 2005
I saw her several times at the Second Fret in Philly and was awed by her. She leaves, I think, Raitt in the dust with her singing and the songs she recorded. She didn't, however, play slide guitar which is what made Raitt so big. And her recording legacy was, unfortunately, very brief. However, I did have her Columbia lp Nothing but the Blues which I lost and refound on eBay and recently had transferred to cd. It was produced and backed by Bobby Scott with backup by John Hammond and I love this recording also, although more jazzy with a big band feel. But her version of He Was a Friend of Mine is just beautiful. I was glad to hear Mollie O'Brien do one of her songs on the 40th anniversary of the Philly Folk Festival. Nice to know she's still remembered by the "younger" generation. All those who saw her live still remember her and the thrill she brought to us through her singing!
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
by Judy Roderick 
