Rita Coolidge

With the arrival of Delta Lady: The Rita Coolidge Anthology, one can only remark: what took so long? No other singer – not Maria Muldaur, Bette Midler, Bonnie Bramlett, Carly Simon, or Linda Ronstadt – more perfectly embodied the wide range of changes that popular music underwent from the late '60s through the mid-'80s, and continues to seek new means of expression today. This two-disc anthology on Hip-O offers the first complete portrait of this complex and multivalent talent on CD (though a box set would have been nice). Rita Coolidge scored her first chart hit with friend Donna Weiss' "Turn Around and Love You" in 1969. That song earned her a studio spot where she fell in with Delaney & Bonnie, Leon Russell, and a huge cast of musicians. Being a background vocalist on Delaney & Bonnie's classic Accept No Substitute earned her a place on Russell and Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen revue and the rest is history, including a handful of chart hits and guest appearances that stagger the mind.

2018 release from the veteran singer/songwriter. After ten years during which she bore witness to some of her life's greatest joys and deepest sorrows - and the publication of her acclaimed 2015 memoir, Detla Lady - Rita Coolidge is back with Safe in the Arms of Time, her 18th solo album and a reaffirmation of her indomitable spirit and unquenchable creative thirst. Safe in the Arms of Time is colored by Rita's pivotal role in the Los Angeles singer-songwriter scene of the 1970s, where she made her bones as a top backup singer - that's Rita on the refrains of Stephen Stills's "Love the One You're With" and Eric Clapton's "After Midnight" - before embarking on a platinum-selling solo career.

Part of Universal's massive 20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection, this 11-song budget set draws on a dozen of Coolidge's best-known tunes. Highlights include "Higher and Higher," "Superstar," "Fever," "You," and "One Fine Day." A solid introduction to this artist.