Why am I putting this surprisingly fantastic album MELANIE at CARNEGIE HALL in my Top 30 records of 2012? After eagerly listening to Sides A & B (we’ve been on a streak of rethrifts lately, heh people?) ~ I was tickled to see there was a second album and popped it on with the same love! “worth getting off the couch for Side B”. Not only is this a fine piece of 1973 vintage, live, folk by an unknown to me Diva~ it’s got tripped out album cover designs with what I think is a roller skate, a candle and a bottle of whiskey for the entire double album insert layout. brilliant and messy in all the right ways. Peace sister.
I’d compare her folk stylings to modern day Patti Rothberg, Ani DeFranco, Martha Wainright, maybe even a younger, vintage Adele. She hits the solo acoustic guitar pretty hard, as she tells mostly her stories. The crowd loves her, no doubt about that. The intro was adorable with a birthday tribute to her. Have you ever heard of Melanie Safka (I had to look hard on the album fine print for a last name)? 
Research says! … she played at WOODSTOCK! She is still alive and touring in New York!
Here’s her website click here for melanie safka
“Others learned this that night at Woodstock, where as a New York kid barely known outside of the coffeehouse circuit in Greenwich Village, she sang her song “Beautiful People” and inspired the first panorama of candles and cigarette lighters ever raised at a concert event. That, in turn, moved the young singer to write “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain”), which sold more than one million copies in 1970 and prompted Billboard, Cashbox, Melody Maker, Record World, and Bravo to anoint her as female vocalist of the year. Her single “Brand New Key,” an infectious romp about freedom and roller skates, topped the charts in 1971. And so her story began. With guitar in hand and a talent that combined amazing vocal equipment, disarming humor, and a vibrant engagement with life, she was booked as the first solo pop/rock artist ever to appear from the Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House, and later opened the New Metropolitan Opera House in New York, the Sydney Opera House, and in the General Assembly of the United Nations, where she was invited to perform on many occasions as delegates greeted her performances with standing ovations.”
“We all bleed inside each others wounds..” wow. I’m certain I was born in the wrong generation (too late). I wonder if Janis liked her? There’s a stark contrast between the lifeless older white clapping audience and the funky black choir back up singers.
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dropping the needle...
