Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

The same record label that brought you the reissue of the obscure Fern Jones
1959 album has now released a compilation of wilfully obscure female folky singer/songwriters. Listening to this, Joni Mitchell has got a lot to answer for because her music inspired an outbreak of female neo-folk activity in the early to mid '70s. Gathering together these obscure recordings from independent releases (or 'custom' albums as they used to be called), these are interesting to us because they include rare recordings from artists who had their five minutes of fame (15 minutes would be pushing it) and then largely disappeared back into obscurity. What will fascinate Christian music anoraks is that five of the tracks here are by believers. Kicking off with 17 year old Becky Swanson's 60 second "A Special Path", the song took its inspiration from Jeremiah 6:16. "Sonlight Shadow" mixes acoustic guitar with some beautiful delicate cello and singer Linda Rich's gorgeous voice. Recorded in 1969, Becky's album was cut after she was discovered at an Inter-Varsity Missionary Conference. Sadly no one knows where she is now. The piano ballad "Window" is the title song from Judy Kelly's independent release and although the song was featured on a couple of compilations from Myrrh Records in the mid '80s, her hopes of signing to Word were quashed when the label was sold to ABC in the mid '70s. Shira Small's "Eternal Life" was recorded in 1974 as a project at a small Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania (you couldn't make this stuff up could you?). The most successful song on the album is Marj Snyder's "Rain". This beautiful piece of guitar plucking folk features a crystal clear vocal and comes from the singer's second album 'Let The Son Shine' which sold an impressive 5000 copies! Ultimately this collection of obscure rarities documents a short chapter when sweet voices, ethereal melodies and acoustic folk were back in vogue and Joni Mitchell hadn't yet discovered jazz. It was also a time when the Christian music industry hadn't yet taken root so Christians and non-Christians rubbed shoulders together making their music until jobs, family, life and shattered dreams pulled the protagonists away from making music. These beautiful songs simply sound like ghosts from more innocent times whispering through the speakers of my stereo.
8 squares
Mike Rimmer

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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