Judee Sill

You gotta love the label that reissues lost rarities like Judee Sill's first LP. Seemingly obsessed with the occult and the contradictions of contemporary religion, her 1971 album floats like Linda Perhacs' Parallelograms but with a slightly twangy tinge, thanks in part to Graham Nash, who produced "Jesus Was A Cross Maker." "Ridge Rider" is gorgeous.

It's her devout hope that we'll "savor each word like a raspberry," and I do mean devout--Sill yearns for the day when Christ the Bridegroom will "take all the gentle away." Thank god her music is spiritually unpresumptuous--pythagorean melodies and spare, delicate chamber-folk arrangements that set off her homespun drawl (the lyric sheet favors spellings like "cuz" and "gunna"). Wish I could also say her lyrics were tart as raspberries, but they remind me more of peaches--fuzzy. (Grade - B)