True Stories & Other Dreams

by Judy Collins

Product Description:

Personnel: Judy Collins (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano); Eric Weissberg (acoustic guitar, banjo, bass); Steve Mandell (acoustic guitar, banjo); Bucky Pizzarelli (acoustic guitar); Jerry Matthews (electric guitar); Bill Keith (pedal steel guitar); Larry Packer (fiddle); Paul Prestopino (autoharp); Don Brooks (harmonica); Lou Killen (concertina); Russell George, Don Payne, Bob Daugherty (bass); Allan Schwartzberg (drums, percussion); Ray Barretto (bongos, congas).

Recorded at the Record Plant, New York, New York.

1973's TRUE STORIES AND OTHER DREAMS is the album on which Judy Collins started to move from folk-rock into the more adult-contemporary pop sound that defined the rest of her '70s albums. The smoothly poppy hit "Cook with Honey" continues the sort of homespun insularity of songs like Crosby Stills Nash and Young's "Our House," whereas "Che" is pretty much Collins' final musical/political statement. "So Begins the Task" falls between the two, being one of those '60s fallout songs so prevalent in the early-to-mid-'70s, such as Bob Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue" and the entirety of PHIL OCHS' GREATEST HITS.

Elsewhere, the deeply autobiographical "Holly Ann," about Collins' kid sister, and "Song For Martin," about a friend's suicide, are among the most personal songs Collins has ever done.