Singer-songwriter Judee Sill embraced the rebelliousness and self-destruction of the early 1970s. She sang like a world-weary angel rising above her world of hard drugs, jail and reform school (where, according to her myth, she learned to play gospel piano).
Sill’s self-titled debut album was the first released on Asylum Records, David Geffen’s haven for L.A. singer-songwriters, virtually all of whom became more famous than Sill. (Jackson Browne’s debut was the second Asylum album.)
Although her two records received critical praise, neither sold well. Sill soon disappeared into obscurity. She died of a drug overdose, by most accounts, in 1979.
Heart Food, her last and greatest album, is full of dark shadows. Yet the record is distinguished by a sense of hope and longing fortified by a religious faith steeped in mysticism. Her melodies — some jazzy, some country, some almost classical — are fortified by an impressive battalion of musicians including banjo player Doug Dillard, steel guitar master Buddy Emmons, soulful keyboardist Spooner Oldham, Flying Burrito Brothers bassist Chris Ethridge, and session drummer Jim Gordon.
Heart Food opens with the bittersweet countryish song “There’s A Rugged Road”, featuring a sweet fiddle and steel guitar. “The Vigilante” is a more playful stab at country and western, with lyrics suggesting Christ as a cowpoke. “The Kiss” is a minor-key tune in which an unspoken pain counters the sweet, hopeful lyrics and a prominent string section; the song is even more powerful in the stripped-down bonus demo version included here. A strong gospel influence permeates some tracks, notably “Down Where The Valleys Are Low” and “When The Bridegroom Comes”, which features just Judee and her piano.
The masterpiece here is “The Donor”, a dark-night-of-the-soul meditation that sounds like what “Surf’s Up” would have been had Brian Wilson called on Leonard Cohen to write the lyrics instead of Van Dyke Parks.
Heart Food has been out-of-print in the U.S. and basically forgotten for three decades. But it hasn’t dated a bit. It’s still powerful medicine. This one should have been a classic.
