And Armatrading held her own leading a crack band that - on this album and the triumphant tour that followed - featured guitar ace Jerry Donahue and drum wiz Dave Mattacks. She also showcased a gutsy acoustic guitar style that later inspired Ani DiFranco and Mary Chapin-Carpenter, among others.

She matched it with smart, no-nonsense lyrics, including this sharp take-down of an especially unfaithful paramour: Tall in the saddle / One of these days you’re gonna have to dismount. Her songs were powerful, even those delivered in a kind of a hush, such as “Save Me” and “Love and Affection,” which boasts one of my all-time favorite opening lines: I am not in love / But I’m open to persuasion.ĭrawing from folk, rock, pop, country, soul, jazz and more, Armatrading created a welcoming if difdicult to classify blend.

Her singing at times suggested a beguiling cross between Joni Mitchell, Odetta and Nina Simone, by way of Diana Ross, circa “Lady Sings the Blues.” Armatrading could sound sweet or husky, assertive or vulnerable, playful or poignant. But they changed how I listened to and thought about music - and, by extension - my perspectives about the world around me, They may not all have changed my life, literally speaking.

An analogy would be tributaries of music flowing into a river of sound that leads to an ocean of aural wonderment, deeper and more expansive than anyone could ever hope to chart.Įach of the 10 records, listed here in alphabetical order, struck a deep chord with me the first time I heard them and continue to do so now. The 10 albums I am writing about here were gateways for me, rather than final destinations. King, Ravi Shankar, the Rolling Stones, Cassandra Wilson, Tom Waits, Prince, Keith Jarrett, Gil Scott-Heron, Thelonious Monk, Rubén Blades, James Moody, Vijay Iyer, Public Enemy, Radiohead, Sun Ra, King Sunny Adé, Bjork, Henry Threadgill, Talking Heads, Randy Newman, Ella Fitzgerald King Crimson, Bonnie Raitt, Hermeto Pascoal, Roxy Music, the Ramones and numerous other favorites of mine. That would be the case even if I included several albums apiece by Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Kendrick Lamar, Aretha Franklin, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Joni Mitchell, Fela Kuti, B.B. I could easily come up with a different daily list of equally worthy records every day for a month and still only scratch the surface.

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