Henske,Judy Elektra Albums CD

UK collection. The big-voiced Ms Henske's two albums for Elektra Judy Henske from 1963 and High Flying Bird 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 an interview with the now 80 year-old Judy.

1. Low Down Alligator 2. Empty Bed Blues 3. Ballad of Little Romy 4. Wade in the Water 5. Hooka Tooka 6. I Know You Rider 7. Lily Langtree 8. Lilac Wine 9. Love Henry 10. Every Night When the Sun Goes in 11. Salvation Army Song 12. High Flying Bird 13. Buckeye Jim 14. Till the Real Thing Comes Along 15. Oh, You Engineer 16. Baltimore Oriole 17. Columbus Stockade 18. Blues Chase Up a Rabbit 19. Lonely Train 20. Duncan and Brady 21. God Bless the Child 22. Good Old Wagon 23. You Are Not My First Love 24. Charlotte Town