The fine people at Tompkins Square have another sublime lost album on their re-release schedule. Released as a limited edition blue vinyl, and also digitally from Bandcamp and elsewhere. It’s a collection of rarities by Ruthann Friedman, and you can be excused for saying “who?“, although after listening you may well want to dig deeper (there’s an album newly available from….oh, we already said that).
In 1967, the folk-pop group The Association had a massive hit with a song called ‘Windy‘ penned by an unknown young woman named Ruthann Friedman. Two years later, she released her own album ‘Constant Companion‘ on Warner/Reprise Records that sounded nothing like ‘Windy‘ – it had more in common with her labelmate Joni Mitchell or cult-hero Linda Perhacs. Decades later, Ruthann would be declared an “astral folk goddess” and championed by the likes of Devendra Banhart.
Around that time, reissue producer Pat Thomas compiled a collection of previously unreleased demos, home recordings, and lost songs circa 1965-1971 from Ruthann’s personal archive including the original version of ‘Windy.‘ Titled ‘Hurried Life‘, Ruthann recently declared, “That’s the one that I really like – that was the first time going back into the archives to find songs that might be reissued. I think those were representative of me.”
