Leonda - Woman In The Sun (CD)

Original release 1969
Re-issue 2008 Fall Out
Sealed !

Though it was released on a major label (Columbia's Epic subsidiary) in the late '60s, Leonda's sole album, Woman in the Sun, is extremely rare, and little known even among fans of singer/songwriters of the era. Because Leonda is Native American, and sometimes uses prominent vibrato in her vocal phrasing, she might generate comparisons to the most well-known Native American singer/songwriter of that era, Buffy Sainte-Marie. Actually, however, she's almost as similar to Annisette of Savage Rose or (more distantly) Melanie, or perhaps some of the gutsier woman singers from late-'60s West Coast rock bands. While Leonda has an appealing, somewhat raspy voice, her folk-bluesy material (with backup help from members of the Canadian rock band the Paupers) is less impressive. The songs are fairly meandering and not all that tuneful, if good-natured with a vaguely hippie uplifting vibe. Things are better when she moves away from a blues base to a folkier one, as she does with the orchestrated When I Lived in My Grandmother's House and the acoustic Zono My Bird. The album was reissued on CD by Fallout in 2007. ~ Richie Unterberger

This lost 1969 acid-folk collection makes its CD debut here.

Personnel: Sammy Lawhorn, Teddy Irwin (guitar); Kermit Moore (cello); John Ord (piano, organ); Adam Mitchell (organ); Skip Prokop (drums).