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The Essential Cris Williamson by Cris Williamson
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33 tracks | 132 minutes
Released Dec 2005
on Wolf Moon Records
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for a 30-second preview. All tracks are 192kbps high fidelity sound quality. Protected WMA $0.77 or unprotected MP3 $0.88.
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- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 05:21 Waterfall lyrics BUY MP3 05:21 Waterfall lyrics "GIFT MP3" 05:21 Waterfall
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:30 What Good Does It Do Me Now lyrics BUY MP3 03:30 What Good Does It Do Me Now lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:30 What Good Does It Do Me Now
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:20 True Story/True Blue lyrics BUY MP3 04:20 True Story/True Blue lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:20 True Story/True Blue
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:34 Texas Ruby Red lyrics BUY MP3 03:34 Texas Ruby Red lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:34 Texas Ruby Red
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 06:01 The Stones From Helen's Field lyrics BUY MP3 06:01 The Stones From Helen's Field lyrics "GIFT MP3" 06:01 The Stones From Helen's Field
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:31 On Going lyrics BUY MP3 03:31 On Going lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:31 On Going
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:34 Wish Book lyrics BUY MP3 03:34 Wish Book lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:34 Wish Book
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:56 If I Live lyrics BUY MP3 02:56 If I Live lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:56 If I Live
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 05:28 We The People lyrics BUY MP3 05:28 We The People lyrics "GIFT MP3" 05:28 We The People
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:27 I Wish You Love lyrics BUY MP3 02:27 I Wish You Love lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:27 I Wish You Love
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:09 Hieroglyphics lyrics BUY MP3 03:09 Hieroglyphics lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:09 Hieroglyphics
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:57 Songbird lyrics BUY MP3 02:57 Songbird lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:57 Songbird
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 05:02 Tea Leaf Prophecy lyrics BUY MP3 05:02 Tea Leaf Prophecy lyrics "GIFT MP3" 05:02 Tea Leaf Prophecy
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:01 Azulao lyrics BUY MP3 02:01 Azulao lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:01 Azulao
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:35 I've Learned To Let Things Go lyrics BUY MP3 03:35 I've Learned To Let Things Go lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:35 I've Learned To Let Things Go
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:29 Song of the Soul lyrics BUY MP3 04:29 Song of the Soul lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:29 Song of the Soul
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:24 Waiting lyrics BUY MP3 03:24 Waiting lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:24 Waiting
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:55 Mother, Mother lyrics BUY MP3 03:55 Mother, Mother lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:55 Mother, Mother
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:32 Strange Paradise lyrics BUY MP3 04:32 Strange Paradise lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:32 Strange Paradise
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:40 The John Deere Song lyrics BUY MP3 03:40 The John Deere Song lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:40 The John Deere Song
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:00 Don't Lose Heart lyrics BUY MP3 04:00 Don't Lose Heart lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:00 Don't Lose Heart
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:13 Colorado Dustbowl Days lyrics BUY MP3 04:13 Colorado Dustbowl Days lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:13 Colorado Dustbowl Days
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 05:02 Soulful Days lyrics BUY MP3 05:02 Soulful Days lyrics "GIFT MP3" 05:02 Soulful Days
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 05:49 Goodnight Marjorie Morningstar lyrics BUY MP3 05:49 Goodnight Marjorie Morningstar lyrics "GIFT MP3" 05:49 Goodnight Marjorie Morningstar
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:24 Ashes lyrics BUY MP3 04:24 Ashes lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:24 Ashes
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:36 Cry, Cry, Cry lyrics BUY MP3 04:36 Cry, Cry, Cry lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:36 Cry, Cry, Cry
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:28 Native Dancer lyrics BUY MP3 04:28 Native Dancer lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:28 Native Dancer
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:32 Soaring lyrics BUY MP3 04:32 Soaring lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:32 Soaring
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:34 Come Hell or High Water lyrics BUY MP3 03:34 Come Hell or High Water lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:34 Come Hell or High Water
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:24 Joanna lyrics BUY MP3 04:24 Joanna lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:24 Joanna
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 02:40 Lullabye lyrics BUY MP3 02:40 Lullabye lyrics "GIFT MP3" 02:40 Lullabye
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 03:11 Midnight Oil lyrics BUY MP3 03:11 Midnight Oil lyrics "GIFT MP3" 03:11 Midnight Oil
- sample lyrics "DOWNLOAD" 04:12 Blue Rider lyrics BUY MP3 04:12 Blue Rider lyrics "GIFT MP3" 04:12 Blue Rider
Awesome deal! When you buy this album for $8.88 you get 33 tracks for less than $0.27 each
Awesome deal! When you buy this album for $7.77 you get 33 tracks for less than $0.24 each
This 2005 double CD set, best-of, and truly essential, collection contains 33 songs from 18 albums -- audience favorites all. Includes 2 previously unreleased bonus tracks.
Editorial review
Although it sounds like a good idea, having an artist pick the songs for her own compilation sometimes can lead to unsatisfying results. Artists are likely to lean more heavily than fans would like on their more recent material; to exclude fan favorites about which they have idiosyncratic objections or are just bored with; and to include personal favorites that nobody ever liked but them. Add, in Cris Williamson's case, the situation that the artist, despite a successful career dating back to the mid-'60s, has never enjoyed a hit in the conventional sense, and the likelihood of a highly subjective compilation is compounded. It is therefore some relief to report that the two-hour-and-13-minute, two-CD collection The Essential Cris Williamson, the most comprehensive of four Williamson compilations to be released, is basically an excellent pr?cis of the artist's extensive catalog. "Although I'm not certain these would be your essential Cris Williamson tunes," she writes, addressing her fervent fan base, "I am confident that these ones will represent in a good medicine way, songs which span more than 30 years of work." What omissions are those fans likely to note? First and foremost, the relative absence of tracks from Williamson's best-known album, The Changer and the Changed. She seems to acknowledge that record's importance by beginning each disc of the non-chronological set with a song from it, leading off disc one with "Waterfall" and disc two with "Song of the Soul." But "Sweet Woman" (included on both 1983's Portrait and 1990's The Best of Cris Williamson) is missing, as are any other tracks from The Changer and the Changed. And, true to form, Williamson does lean somewhat toward more recent fare in her choices, selecting, for example, four songs from 2003's Cris & Holly (a duo album with Holly Near). But there is some balance throughout her catalog, with songs dating all the way back to 1971's Cris Williamson. And the overall selection is much better than that on The Best of Cris Williamson (more than half of which has been deemed inessential) and much closer to being an expanded version of the superior Portrait (with only three songs missing from that set). Fans no doubt will carp (e.g., where's "Surrender Dorothy"?), but compilations aren't really made for fans (even though, as usual, they are baited by the inclusion of two previously unreleased tracks, covers of Bonnie Hayes' "Hieroglyphics" and the 1950s standard "I Wish You Love"). Compilations are made for fans to buy as presents for neophytes. And The Essential Cris Williamson should serve that purpose well; someone who had never heard Williamson's music before would be likely to get both an accurate and a positive impression of her body of work by listening to it. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Bio / Background
Decades before indie labels were the norm, and years before women had any real access in the industry, Cris Williamson was changing the face of popular music. She conceived of a national all-women's record company, which subsequently issued her now-legendary classic, The Changer and the Changed -- one of the best-selling independent releases of all time. An entire sub-culture came to be around her songs and her music. A movement was established. Her out politics and pro-environment stance paved the way for many of today's artists. She is part of the curriculum in Women's Studies programs around the world. Her songs are sung around campfires and appear in hymnals and are covered by the young rockers of today. And whether she is gracing the cover of Ms Magazine or selling out Carnegie Hall three times, Cris's many and varied accomplishments are only to be overshadowed by her amazing voice.