Song-a-Day #2: Sill the One!

I heard Judee Sill's "Jesus Was a Cross Maker" for the first time the other day on KBOO and instantly declared it the greatest song I ever heard. I make such declarations often (I continue the legacy of Irish hyperbole...) But really, it's a brilliant song, both in composition and performance. As I listened I tried to guess who was singing. Sill sort of sounds like Nancy Griffith, or vice versa.

Judee Sill's debut album, Judee Sill, was also the first release on David Geffen's fledgling pre-Geffen Records label, Aslyum Records. She'd release only one more album in her lifetime, dying of a drug overdose at 35 in '79.

A singer in the vein of Nyro and Mitchell, but quite on her own in style, Sill has become an immediate favorite of mine. Rhino Handmade re-released her albums a few years ago, and they're now out of print. But they're on iTunes. So I downloaded her first album.

Recommended. No shit.