American Tune [180g Vinyl]

The saga of , the late Washington, D.C., singer who gained fame long after her early passing from melanoma, continues vibrantly on , a collection of ten more "leftovers" that former bandmates discovered in the past year -- similarly as they did on , the previous release of great cuts. While she never achieved much more than local recognition in her lifetime, her inspirational legacy is not only rooted in her own story of personal courage but her ability to take songs that have been heard thousands of times and make them sound fresh, exciting, even better than the original. Just as marveled at her heartbreaking rendition of you can imagine finding joy in the singer's take on which begins softly, with an angelic vocal before the full power of 's vocals and her band take over (that slow build is a trademark as well). The fun part of any new hodgepodge is pegging the many genres she draws from, almost as if she's thumbing her nose at the record execs who wouldn't sign her because she refused to limit herself to any one style. There's the - drama of the gentle acoustic guitar hymn and a lively rendition of ' The introspective tune the album is named for is given a gently powerful reading but lacks the eye-popping emotional power she gives to and songs you might think you'd heard quite enough versions of. The set closes with the plaintive love song well known to folks nowadays from 's version. Based on the ongoing discovery of more tunes no doubt never thought would see the light of day, you can only hope that there are more trunks full of tapes waiting to be mastered and released. ~ Jonathan Widran