'Many A Mile' by Buffy Sainte-Marie

'Many A Mile' is Buffy's second album, originally released in 1965 on Vanguard. Although all of Buffy's other albums on Vanguard have been released on CD, for some reason 'Many A Mile' hasn't been until now.  I can only assume it was a rights issue for one of the cover songs on the album. I tracked down a CD version of the album in the 2000s on eBay and imported it from Italy. It came with a square gatefold version of the original album cover with the original 12" vinyl liner notes printed inside.

Some of the songs from the album are well known from being included in compilations over the years, particularly 'Until It's Time For You To Go' which was covered by virtually everyone in the '60s and '70s. There's also 'The Piney Wood Hills' which was a staple of Buffy's live sets for years and 'Los Pescadores' with it's sweeping and soaring vocals. But 'Many A Mile' includes some other gems like the deep blues of 'Fixin' To Die' and the traditional spiritual 'Lazarus', performed with voice and a handclap to produce a haunting, astonishing sound. 'Lazarus' was sampled years ago by Kanye West for a song by Cam'ron ('Dead or Alive'). There's also the gentle 'Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies' with Buffy playing mouthbow.

The two CDs sound very similar but the vocals on the new version sound warmer and richer, or at least they do to me.I'm pleased it's finally released as part of the suite of Buffy's Vanguard records.

Buffy Sainte-Marie - 'Many A Mile'

In important Buffy news, her second album, 'Many A Mile' is finally available for the first time on CD. The blurb on Amazon says:

This is the last of Buffy Sainte-Marie's albums to make it into Ace's catalogue of her Vanguard releases. The delay was caused by the lack of a master tape and Ace did not want to dub it from disc. Thankfully a tape has now been discovered and they can fill the gap. Originally released in 1965 as VSD 79171. The album contains a fair percentage of traditional material including several Child ballads. Of her self-penned songs, Until It's Time For You To Go is the most famous.

Some of the songs on this album have been included on compilations over the years but the full album hasn't been available, at least in this country. I bought my copy from a record dealer in Italy and it came in a  reproduction cover but it'll be nice to have this new version.

Until recently, 'Piney Wood Hills' was a staple of Buffy's live set and, of course, she always plays the gorgeous 'Until It's Time For You To Go'. Other favourites are 'Los Pescadores' with her amazing and haunting voice banshee-wailing as the sea and the spine tingling 'Lazarus', just voice and hand-claps. And did you know that Kanye West sampled 'Lazarus' when he produced one of Cam'ron's albums? He did y'know, you can hear it plain as day on 'Dead or Alive' on the album 'Come Home With Me' (no idea if Buffy gets a credit).

I will get my pocket money out and invest in this record immediately! 

Would you buy a used continent...?

It's Buffy Sainte-Marie's birthday in a few weeks time and, in the run up to the big day, I'm listening to all my Buffy songs. It's a good opportunity to remember old favourites and hear songs anew and afresh. Some songs make me smile and some make me cry. I generally hear something new every time I listen properly to Buffy's songs. A unique lyric or phrasing, something that whizzes me back in memory to another decade or something that just makes me think 'yeah'.

This evening I looked up this cover of the New Musical Express from 1976 with Buffy looking well righteous and the caption, 'Would you buy a used continent from this woman?'. 1976 was an eon ago and I can't quite remember, but I bought the NME back then so maybe it was this cover and the related interview that made me watch the BBC2 programme about Buffy that converted me to the true faith. Maybe.

I can't help but like the fact that the Sex Pistols graced the cover of the NME a matter of months after Buffy.

Buffy was probably promoting the 'Sweet America' album when this photo was taken. The record includes some of her early powwow rock songs like 'Starwalker' and 'I Been Down', creating a unique Native American sound on the one hand and, on the other, adding another sonic dimension to a rock sound. 'Sweet America' was my first non-compilation Buffy album and I still love it. It's one of my favourite Buffy albums and it was great when it was finally released on CD a few years ago as 'Buffy/Changing Woman/Sweet America - the Mid-1970s Recordings', three albums across two CDs.

Buffy has released new music in four of the last five decades, the '80s being the exception. But then again, she wrote 'Up Where We Belong' in the '80s and won an Oscar for it without even needing to record it. The only record missing from her collection is 'Many A Mile', Buffy's second album, and I don't understand why that is. It includes her mega-hit 'Until It's Time For You To Go' (which was recorded by everyone in the '60s) and 'Piney Wood Hills' that she still plays live at the start of her live set. It also includes 'Lazarus' that was sampled by Kanye West for a song by Cam'ron. Why isn't 'Many A Mile' available? Maybe there's a licensing problem? I bought it through eBay so have all the songs but it should be available on principle.

Buffy's latest album is 'Running For The Drum' and includes a great melange of songs in a variety of styles. She even includes her tribute to the late '50s skiffle bands (like Lonnie Donegan, as Buffy mentions) and Elvis with songs like 'Blue Sunday'. She still writes great love songs but she also writes great social commentary songs about environmental greed and 'the man'. She turns a complex social problem into a three minute pop song with ease and gets the message across with aplomb.

The last time I saw Buffy play live was during the London Olympics 2012 as part of Anthony Hegarty's Meltdown festival. She played with her band without any support act so we got two hours of Buffy, a longer set that meant she played some of the songs from her '70s albums. I was terribly excited when I heard the introduction to 'Generations', one of my favourite Buffy songs. That was delightful.

I was also privileged with meeting Buffy and her band after the show - I had to queue up, of course, since everyone wanted to meet her. Her band were excited to hear that I'd downloaded their Bruthers Of Different Muthers album (which is their band name when they're not with Buffy) and enjoyed it. You might too. Buffy was lovely and I thanked her for putting me on the guest list for the show (I'd already bought a  ticket in any case - I'm not missing an opportunity to see Buffy!).

I think we're about due for another visit to London, Buffy. Hint. Hint.

Buffy, Sandi and Patrick

Buffy Sainte-Marie has been around for a while and been working with and influencing people since the '60s (including Kanye West who sampled 'Lazarus'). It's good to see she's still doing it today, specifically in new albums released by Sandi Thom and Patrick Wolf.

Sandi asked Buffy to sing with her on 'The Big Ones Get Away', one of Buffy's songs from the early '90s and  favourite of Sandi. It's nice to hear a new version of the song which, as you'd expect, sounds quite different to the original and two voices gives it a slightly different emphasis. It has an acoustic feel as instruments gradually appear and Buffy starts to sing.

Buffy met Patrick Wolf in Barcelona earlier this year and co-wrote a new version of one of his songs. On his website he says:

I would like to thank Buffy St Marie who co-wrote the new version of Hard Times with me. This is the only cowrite on the album, we met in Barcelona during the recording session and after some amazing discussions about war, peace and revolution she channelled a new message and edition of the song for me. 

That's nice. I look forward to hearing it.

Sandi's new album, 'Flesh and Blood' is already out and Patrick's album, 'Sundark and Riverlight' will be released on 15 October.