Live In London - the BBC Recordings 1972 - 1973 (Live)

The enigmatic Judee Sill would take a year to finish writing a song and she battled a heavy drug addiction that killed her in 1979. But these live recordings show a more gentle and soft-spoken Sill who could drive her voice with a control and beauty unrevealed in her studio albums. She opens with her best-known number “Jesus Was a Cross Maker” displaying every nuance of Sill’s pristine inflections and the finesse in her piano playing. There are actually two versions of this one — the second performed on an acoustic guitar where her phrasing more closely follows that of her playing. There are also three takes of “The Kiss” which she purportedly penned a week before first performing it here, so you can really hear the enthusiasm in the first version and evolution of the song’s delivery. Both versions of “Enchanted Sky Machines” contrast Sill’s earnest concern with the soulful bounce of gospel- influenced piano. Ending with a heartfelt version of “Down Where the Valleys Are Low” leaves us with a powerful echo of the Laurel Canyon musical canon.