Homo Sum » Blog Archive » “If Linda Ronstadt is a torch singer then Judy Henske is a flame thrower”

“If Linda Ronstadt is a torch singer then Judy Henske is a flame thrower”

What you are looking at there is the cover of Rhino Handmade’s new limited edition compilation, Big Judy. It’s an attempt at a retrospective of the career of Judy Henske. While I can’t comment on how successful it is until my copy gets here, I can share my excitement about this with you.

If you’re already “in the know” then I don’t need to explain that excitement.

If you’re not… well, let’s see if we can correct that.

First off, you’ve seen Annie Hall, right? Well, word on the street is that Judy is Annie Hall. That doesn’t tell you anything about her music, but it should pique your interest.

I first encountered Judy in the pages of Andrew Vachss‘ fiction. His series character Burke is a huge fan of Henske, and there are often moments in the books where all action stops while Burke is completely captured by Henske. (You can see some excerpts and info at Vachss’ web site).

Me, I had never heard of Henske, much less actually heard her. I wasn’t even born the first time her career flourished, and all her music was out of print at the time I was reading the Vachss books.

Shortly thereafter, though, she released a new album (after a 28 year gap from the previous one), and when I heard about that I thought I would order it. Well, I’m pretty damn glad I indulged that whim, since Loose In The World is one of my favourite albums.

Not long after that some of her earlier albums were rerelased, and I got a chance to see what she had been like back in the day… and was very happy to have the chance. Then she released another new album, and of course I got that one. And so on. At this point I think I have everything that’s ever been released on CD.

Telling you that I’m a fan of hers, of both the old stuff and the newer stuff, isn’t quite the same thing as demonstrating her power to you, is it?

OK. Try this:


Old School Judy	Modern Day Judy
Till The Real Thing Comes Along	Wish I Had My Old Guitar

There’s one of the “flame thrower” songs from back in the day, and one of my two favourites from the modern period. That should give you some idea.

Now you should understand why I’m excited.

Here are some places you can find out some more information:

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 12:51 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.