This record is weird. Weird is the wrong word, it is very newage, very eclectic, highly introspective. Collins’ work ha always ben rather introspective but this is some of the deepest.

Let me explain… Portrait of An American Girl was Judy Collins’ first studio recording in a decade (subsequently she has this year released an album of Lennon and McCartney classics) but this was the first. She suffered much hardship during her recording hiatus and the record could perhaps be viewed as a watershed.

On the album Collins sings covers of Cockburn’s Pacing The Cage, probably the darkest track on the album and songs of bereavement (her son killed himself in 1992) from her own pen. This dark subject matter makes the bulk of the record. Indeed there’s not a happy song on this– the closest it gets to happiness is hopefulness.

The album is definitely Collins’ work–the eclecticism is there, the musical sensibility that embodies her earlier work is there as is the great, though slightly morbid taste. however something is missing. Nonetheless, with its folksy nostalgia, Portrait Of An American Girl serves to soothe the soul.

NOTES: Portrait Of An American Girl was released in2005 by Wildflower Records