I know very little about the life and career of Anna Black, and what I do know doesn’t help shape any idea of what drove her as an artist. I just know that I was told about her album a few years ago, and found her cover of “Eleanor Rigby” on an obscure blog last year. Since then I have made it one of my goals to find more of her songs. Seriously, her cover of the well-known Beatles tune is so haunting and beautiful it forced me to scour far and wide to find (what I believe is) her only full-length album, Meet Anna Black. It was released by Epic in 1968, and it exists as both a commercial (yellow label) and a promotional (white label) release. I know the white label promo is Monophonic, but I don’t know anything really about stock copies. The photograph above was heisted from another website.
The liner notes sure don’t clear up any information about Miss Black. She is from Oklahoma, her lineage traces back to the Chickasaw Indian tribe, and she cuts her own hair. Also, something about chilies and maybe…
Her style is somewhat jazzy, somewhat bluesy, somewhat psychedelic and somewhat folky. At times it sounds like all four. Of the few websites and eBay auctions I found that reference Meet Anna Black, there are references to a genre called “female fuzz,” and another called “femme folk psych.” You’ll have to listen for yourselves if you want to take a stab at it.
Anna Black
Meet Anna Black
MediaFire Download Link
Tracklist:
01. Miss Otis Regrets
02. Little Annie Weed
03. You-All Come
04. Hey Now Now
05. The Tullys & The Tolphins
06. Jimmy Ben
07. Eleanor Rigby
08. Freedom Train
09. Gloomy Sunday
10. Muddy Hay
11. Drinkin’ Daddy
12. Billy Goat Run
