Tia Blake And Her Folk-Group - Folksongs & Ballads (Remastered) (1971/2011)
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks, cue, log) - 259 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 125 MB
54:42 | Folk | Label: Water
Folksongs & Ballads Review by Fred Thomas
Folksongs & Ballads is the only document of Tia Blake's short-lived stint as a folk performer. In 1970, Blake was an American teenager living in Paris who stumbled into a recording contract that resulted in a single LP of 11 public domain folk compositions. There was only one live performance in Paris to promote the album's release, and the next summer Blake left France, never to return and never to record or perform publicly again. California reissue label Water extends the original album with some rehearsal tapes, as well as three songs from 1976 recorded by the Canadian Broadcasting Company but never used, representing just about every song the artist ever put to tape in her time. With minimal orchestration of two guitars, Blake's darkly powerful voice, and the occasional flute or dobro flourish, these traditional songs are rendered either gorgeously wistful – as on the breezy "Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" or the trucker's anthem "Plastic Jesus" – or crushingly sad. Swinging between these extremes, the album finds a quiet gracefulness that bests some of the most successful folk albums of its time.