The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie

THE BEST OF BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE

The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie is a compilation album taken from her first six albums with Vanguard Records, released in 1970. (More from Wikipedia)

The first Native American artist that I became familiar with is Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree). Hers is one of the strongest vibratos that I have ever heard in a singer, and I think it is fair to say that her music is an acquired taste. I have several of her albums, but I can recommend the above double-LP as providing a good overview of her music. She is primarily a folksinger but has also made rock and country recordings. Surprisingly, one of the four album sides on The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie has electronic music; one song in particular is a lively rendition of a song by Leonard Cohen called “God is Alive (Magic is Afoot)”, with looping lyrics that freely interchange the ideas of “God” and “magic”.

(August 2013)