Testimony [Import]

I bought this on CD in 1988 (I think. It's not dated.) It came out on Redwood Records, Emeryville, CA. Write them and tell them to re-release it. I also bought it on LP when it was first released in 1982/83.

I first heard the song "Misty Mountain" on the UMASS student radio station while delivering pizzas on a sunny spring afternoon in Amherst, Massachusetts many many moons ago. After about 20 measures I brought my '72 Cutlass with the green brocade interior to a screeching stop, flipped a very illegal u-turn on Rte 9, and went without further ado, delay or braking to the record store to buy their only copy. I'm pretty sure some frat boys got cold pizza, but after 20 some years to reflect and atone, I'd do it again. For the next few weeks, until school ended that year, I played the grooves off of it on my own college radio show.

So when I saw the CD in a store in the West Village a few years later, I didn't even blink. I have the rest of her music, my other favorite being "Not a Still Life." Other than that live set, none of her later work (IMHO) holds a candle to "Testimony." By comparison, much of it is over produced and lacks the immediacy of that early young work.

To me Ferron's career represents one of those unfortunate situations where someone somewhere (probably wearing a suit) decided that they could make more money marketing to a niche audience--apparently lesbians--than by trying to appeal to the broader market. (I can hear the anguished and befuddled conversations in the NY offices: "But Marv, how we gonna sell this stuff? She's not Joni Mitchell, Chrissie Hynde or Ann Wilson. She's a lesbian." There follows much hand wringing.)

Typically shortsighted and narrow minded, the suits in the recording company (yes, the same business Einsteins who are currently suing 12 year olds for downloading Blink 182 tracks--but I digress) have missed an enormous portion of a much larger available market (a loss for the artist), but worse for the world-at-large, have also denied a lot of people (who cares about sexual orientation--it's MUSIC for pete's sake!) an opportunity to experience and enjoyr some amazing music simply because someone somewhere made a marketing decision. A loss for everyone.

I'm not a lesbian. I'm not even a woman. I'm a 45 year old, sometimes-suit-wearing male Deadhead who loves Coltrane, Dylan, Little Feat, the Cowboy Junkies and Neil Young, among others. This album and this artist proudly occupy a place of honor in the Frequently Played section of my music collection, and I have never had anyone--well, any musically aware person that is--come into my home when this was on and not ask about it, want to check out the liner notes, etc. Then they want to know where I got it, how I heard of her, yada, yada.

As I think about it, none of my lesbian friends have any musical predilections worth pandering to anyhow. They mostly just like Heart and Van Morrison.

This amazing album has affected so many women, including myself. I can't even remember when I first knew it; some of the songs, such as "Our Purpose Here" and "Ain't Life a Brook" are just about anthems for the lesbian nation. I tell friends to get this CD first, as it is the foundation (as far as I know) for Ferron's later, equally wonderful and important, work.

My first girlfriend intruduced me to Ferron's Music and I love it. Why can't I get the Testimony CD! I NEED this CD! I think it deserves a 10 star rating! M. Rouse

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