Great to hear Joan Armatrading mentioned on the list. To me she is one of
the few artists who can compare to Joni. This is a rather long 'me too!'.
As far as I know all of her albums have been available at some time or
another on CD, but I've never actually seen Back to the Night or Steppin'
Out on CD, only heard of them on ebay. Judging by ebay her CDs did have a
US release as the rare albums like 'Secret Secrets', 'The Key' and 'Sleight
of Hand' appear quite frequently on US ebay, but never on the UK one. I
still play all but her most recent albums on the original vinyl and I'm
anxiously awaiting a decent remastered rerelease of her back catalogue
though I won't hold my breath.
There are about 10 or so original b-sides as well that haven't seen the
light of day since they're original release. Criminal for this music to go
to waste, but with A&M effectively folded, the masters are probably in some
corporate limbo and I doubt anyone will do anything about it.
Earlier this year her first album 'Whatevers For Us' - her only non A&M
album - was repackaged with two previously unavailable (on CD) tracks.
This is very different from the rest of Joan's work in my opinion, and
aside from a rather strong Elton John(!) influence, you can tell Joan had
been listening to Ladies of the Canyon a fair bit. She, like so many
others, has often quoted Joni as a strong influence.
Anybody who caught her recent tour of America, Europe and Australia will be
pleased to hear that she is working on a new album in the 'stripped down'
or 'solo' style of those shows. It will be her first album since 1995 when
it finally surfaces.
For those of you interested in her music, and have found her official site
rather limited (you have to pay to become an 'Insider' and even inside,
there isn't much going on), there is a rather good fan site set up by a guy
in Australia:
www.joanarmatrading.org
and there is an yahoo group tied in with that site as well, though posts
can be very few and far between sometimes.
Thanks to John van Tiel - our old world one man music resource - I have
recently got my hands on some great live shows of Joan's and that's just
convinced me further of her talents.
Hope y'all have a good time in Topsfield.
Rob
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