Leonda - Woman In the Sun (1968/2018) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

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."

Tracklist:

01. Mist In the Sky
02. Somebody's Gonna Ask Me Who I Was
03. When I Lived In My Grandmother's House
04. Blue Diamond In A Platinum Setting
05. Mother In Love
06. Come Take a Waltz Through My Heart
07. Peace and Pipes
08. Zono My Bird
09. Head Country (To the Lost City of Zoozoo)
10. Make It All Right



All thanks go to the original releaser