Linda Perhacs

The mysterious Linda Perhacs made one obscure album in the early 1970s before vanishing; before it was reissued on CD in 1998, the record label spent a fruitless two years trying to locate her. (Perhaps she was living in Hawaii when she made this, as the songs are copyrighted to Hawaii Music Publishing Company.) The obvious reference point for this low-key, largely acoustic, singer/songwriter record is early Joni Mitchell, although Perhacs may be a tad darker and more sultry. There are similar vocal navigations of the smoky lower register and high trills. While Perhacs' writing and singing is not up to Mitchell's brilliance, it's quite good and not so explictly derivative that it's difficult to enjoy on its own merits (unlike the records by another Mitchell-esque singer of the early '70s, Alisha Sufit of Britain). The haunting acoustic guitar playing and occasional folk-jazz arrangements (Shelly Manne played drums), and rhythms on the cuts with a band backup, are other ingratiating Mitchell-isms. The Parallelograms album is set apart from Mitchell, however, by a mildly experimental, even spacy, tinge to some of the lyrics and the production. Occasionally Perhacs multi-tracks her vocals to good, inventive use, and there are subtle electronic effects and rain and wind noises from time to time that add to the record's gentle mystique. Like Mitchell's debut album, it's one of those late-night records, when you want something that's appropriate for the mood, but neither too spooky nor too mellow. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi