I've been on the hunt lately for great music on cassette (a necessity when your car is your grandparents 12-year-old Buick). So to score Laura Nyro's 1968 album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession for a toonie was pretty satisfying.
Released when she was just 21, Nyro's second album met with critical acclaim for her sophistication, her vocals and her innovative melding of jazz, soul, girl group harmonies and solid Brill Building-style song-writing. Her commercial success actually came from other people covering her songs (but in my opinion, her renditions are superior in virtually every instance.)
She's the sophisticated, offbeat and criminally lesser-known counterpart to Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Ricki Lee Jones and if you liked Diane Birch's 2009 album Bible Belt, you need to check her out.
1 comment:
I grew up listening to the covers of Laura's songs that were played on the radio, and I was perfectly happy with them, until I heard Her originals. It's like I was eating a single scoop of vanilla ice cream, not realizing I could have been feasting on a delicious banana split, with all the toppings. The radio programmers blew it big time, they should have put her REAL versions in heavy rotation. If they had, I guarantee they would have been even bigger hits, and Laura Nyro would be the #1 Female Artist of all time - she certainly is to me!
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