Various - Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 7 / 10 / 2009

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Tribute albums, don’t you just love them? Over the years there have been no more than a handful of tribute albums that have been worth listening to more than once. It’s either a case of trying too hard or not trying at all. We really don’t want songs by our favourite artists twisted into something unrecognisable, yet at the same time we don’t like to hear a carbon-copy of the songs either. Really, what is the point of them? Thankfully the good people at American Dust have assembled an eclectic bunch of musicians, some like Trembling Blue Stars who one wouldn’t really associate as being fans of the work of Judee Sill and other choices that don’t surprise at all like Frida Hyvönen. Judee Sill’s sad story is well documented on numerous internet sites, but briefly the talented American singer/songwriter died at the age of 35 in 1979 having recorded only two albums, her self-titled debut in 1971 and the follow-up, ‘Heart Food’, two years later. While many believe that her premature death was the direct result of her drug addiction, some reports indicate that a series of car accidents that left her in not inconsiderable pain pushed her back into the addiction that affected her earlier in life. One thing is certain; Judee Sill lived a life many of us can never understand. As with Nick Drake, another artist who has sold more records since his sad passing than he did while alive, interest in Sill’s work has steadily increased, especially over the last five years. Thankfully Sill’s musical output has, for the most part, been treated well. There have been re-issues over the years of both her albums, and a double CD entitled ‘Abracadabra, The Asylum Years’ (both of Sill’s albums were originally issued on David Geffen’s Asylum label) added a host of bonus tracks to both albums in the form of live, alternate and original versions of the featured songs. Then the excellent Water label issued straight versions of the albums separately, before releasing a superb package titled ‘Dreams Come True’ featuring demos for a proposed third album that sadly never saw the light of day along with a fact-filled book that was worth the price of the package alone. Then there were the limited edition issues of the original albums of which Rhino Handmade produced only 5000 copies of each. So if anyone wanted to replace their well-worn vinyl or wanted to check out what all the fuss was about there has never been a better time to do so than during the last five years. American Dust have set this tribute album apart from the others not only with that inspired selection of artists they have covering Sill’s songs but by including two songs composed by Sill that she never recorded herself. The sheet music for these two songs was only fairly recently discovered and Beth Orton all but steals the show here with her rendition of ‘Reach For The Sky’, which leaves wondering why Sill left a song as good as this off her albums. Maybe that too was intended for the third album that never was. Bill Callahan takes the other ‘new’ song, ‘For a Rainbow’, which while not initially as strong and immediate as the song Beth Orton sings so beautifully does, eventually show all that was so appealing about Sill’s music. It takes time to get under your skin, like a lot of Sill’s work this is music to be savoured like, say, a fine wine. Callahan’s fine performance does make one wonder if Sill would have made such an outstanding job on the song though ; at the present moment in time it’s unimaginable to think of anyone but Callahan singing this song, he really has made it his own. If the press release hadn’t labeled Callahan’s performance as slow-burning then I would certainly have done, all I can say now is that after hearing the song four or five times it’s still-burning a place in my head. Eight minutes of some of the best music I’ve heard all year has been lying undiscovered for some 35 years; amazing. Even those who think they are unfamiliar with Sill’s work will probably recognise at least a couple of songs here, The Hollies covered ‘Jesus Was aCross Maker’ with some success and it was featured not so long ago in the Cameron Crowe film ‘Elizabethtown’ and the Turtles covered ‘Lady-O’. The Fleet Foxes play ‘Crayon Angels’ at their concerts which is given the expected sweet-voiced treatment on this album by Ron Sexsmith. The strange thing is that I approached this album thinking that Sill’s most well-known songs would be the most immediately satisfying on this collection but in truth the ‘new’ song Beth Orton covers is an undoubted highlight and, once the beauty of Bill Callahan’s reading of ‘For A Rainbow’ unravels after a listen or two, it’s obvious that Sill had a lot more to offer than the two albums she left us with. But one of the biggest surprises is that a band that once released a song called ‘Abba on the Jukebox’ on the Sarah label which would surely make them the most unlikeliest candidates for a Judee Sill tribute album turn in what is possibly the best, dreamiest version of ‘Lady-O’ we will ever hear. While always admiring the work of Trembling Blue Stars they have just jumped a place or ten in my estimation. And if Sill’s other most recognised song, ‘Jesus was a Cross Maker’ is going to bring the talents of Frida Hyvönen to a wider audience (check out her excellent albums ‘Silence Is Wild’ and ‘Until Death Comes’ if you like your female singer/songwriters a little on the quirky side) then it’s an added bonus. As with Trembling Blue Stars, it’s one of the best versions of the song ever recorded. ‘Lopin’ Along Thru The Cosmos’ from Sill’s debut album is also worthy of a mention, the version here by Shalants ( no, me neither) recalls the Jesus andMary Chain stripped of their wall of noise while still giving the impression that it’s there just lying under the surface waiting to explode into life, which, thankfully, it never does. It’s a stunning recreation of the song and a highlight of the collection. So, finally a tribute album we can put in the small pile of similar CDs where the artists involved have treated the songs with the respect they deserve and which will make the uninitiated want to check out the source material. And that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day surely. Fifteen Judee Sill songs, some in the best versions you will have heard so far including two Sill compositions which have never been committed to tape before, it’s like Christmas has come early.

Track Listing:-

1 Ron Sexsmith- Crayon Angel
2 Beth Orton- Reach For The Sky
3 Daniel Rossen- Waterfall
4 Frida Hyvönen- Jesus Was A Cross Maker
5 Shalants- Lopin' Along Thru The Cosmos
6 Final Fantasy- The Donor
7 Nicolai Dunger- Soldier Of The Heart
8 Trembling Blue Stars- Lady-O
9 Colossal Yes- The Phoenix
10 Marissa Nadler & Black Hole Infinity- The Kiss
11 Princeton- Down Where The Valleys Are Low
12 The Bye Bye Blackbirds- There's A Rugged Road
13 Meg Baird- When The Bridegroom Comes
14 Bill Callahan- For A Rainbow
15 PG Six- Til Dreams Come True

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