Judy Henske The Elektra Albums (CD)

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catalog number: CDCHD1501
weight in Kg 0.11

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(2017/Ace) 24 Tracks - Stereo - 20-page booklet! The big-voiced Ms Henske’s two albums for... more

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Judy Henske: The Elektra Albums (CD)

(2017/Ace) 24 Tracks - Stereo - 20-page booklet! The big-voiced Ms Henske’s two albums for Elektra »Judy Henske« (EKS 7231) from 1963 and »High Flying Bird« (EKS 7241) from the following year, released together on one CD. She had to be loud as she learned her trade warming up audiences, un-amplified, for Lenny Bruce in Sunset Strip coffee houses – her beat-keeping stamp occasionally destroying the stage. Eschewing »little girl« folk songs for the lure of whorehouse blues and murder ballads, Henske’s renditions are totally her own while her charismatic spoken introductions are a perfect foil for the gutsy vocals which follow. She runs the entire gamut of emotions; often very funny but also tender, raunchy, yearning and sensual. This reissue captures a time when Judy Henske was a force of untamed nature in the safe folk world, maybe too big for the era then unfolding outside. Sleeve notes are by Kris Needs, based on a brand new interview with the now 80 year-old Judy!

Whorehouse blues belted out with the elemental power of Bessie Smith and murder ballads introduced with patter honed while warming up hard-bitten crowds waiting for Lenny Bruce.

The sedate Los Angeles folk music scene never really recovered from the huge impact made by Judy Henske when she hit Sunset Strip in 1960. Discovered and managed by LA hustler Herb Cohen, Judy took on the tough gig of supporting cutting-edge comic Lenny Bruce at the Unicorn coffee house in West Hollywood. Armed only with a banjo, she stomped her foot so hard to keep time that she created a hole in the stage, while belting out blues and grisly murder ballads linked with hilarious repartee. The crowd was rough, and Bruce was always at the centre of controversy for tackling taboo subjects, but Judy won them over.

Signed by Jac Holzman to Elektra Records in 1962, Judy soon blended in with Fred Neil, Phil Ochs, Tim Buckley and others from the company’s burgeoning stable. For “Judy Henske”, her first album, Holzman conceived a live recording in front of a studio audience, with Judy supported by an orchestra directed by veteran bandleader Onzy Matthews. The album features stunning renditions of the traditional ‘Low Down Alligator, Bessie Smith’s ‘Empty Bed Blues’ and an eerie reading of the spiritual ‘Wade In The Water’.

“High Flying Bird”, Judy’s second LP, was informed by her immersion in the Greenwich Village scene inNew York. Captured with a stripped-down band, featuring Little Richard’s drummer Earl Palmer, Judy laid down the foundations of folk rock with the Billy Edd Wheeler-penned title track, the spectral ‘Buckeye Jim’, an impassioned version of the 1930s number ‘Till The Real Thing Comes Along’ and ‘Oh, You Engineer’, co-written by Judy with polymath Shel Silverstein.

Judy’s take-no-prisoners approach to blues and folk was influential on artists such as Grace Slick, Mama Cass Elliot,Cherand even Amy Winehouse, although her recordings never sold in vast quantities. Kris Needs’ extensive notes for this very welcome and lavishly illustrated reissue of her Elektra albums are based on a new and anecdote-filled interview with the now blind but still indomitable Judy.

IAN JOHNSTON

Article properties: Judy Henske: The Elektra Albums (CD)

Interpret: Judy Henske
Album titlle: The Elektra Albums (CD)
Genre Folk
Label Ace Records
Artikelart CD
EAN: 0029667079921
weight in Kg 0.11

Henske, Judy - The Elektra Albums (CD) CD 1
01	Low Down Alligator	Judy Henske
02	Empty Bed Blues	Judy Henske
03	Ballad Of Little Romy	Judy Henske
04	Wade In The Water	Judy Henske
05	Hooka Tooka	Judy Henske
06	I Know You Rider	Judy Henske
07	Lily Langtree	Judy Henske
08	Lilac Wine	Judy Henske
09	Love Henry	Judy Henske
10	Every Night When The Sun Goes In	Judy Henske
11	Salvation Army Song	Judy Henske
12	High Flying Bird	Judy Henske
13	Buckeye Jim	Judy Henske
14	Till The Real Thing Comes Along	Judy Henske
15	Oh, You Engineer	Judy Henske
16	Baltimore Oriole	Judy Henske
17	Columbus Stockade	Judy Henske
18	Blues Chase Up A Rabbit	Judy Henske
19	Lonely Train	Judy Henske
20	Duncan And Brady	Judy Henske
21	God Bless The Child	Judy Henske
22	Good Old Wagon	Judy Henske
23	You Are Not My First Love	Judy Henske
24	Charlotte Town	Judy Henske