Ruthann Friedman - Chinatown (Wolfgang/Light in the Attic)

Forty-four years after releasing her first solo album, 1970’s Constant Companion, Ruthann Friedman, the mysterious writer of The Association‘s 1967 hit, “Windy,” finally delivers her sophomore effort.

Chinatown seamlessly continues the intimate acoustic sound of Friedman’s debut, the wisdom of her years informing the songs the way her youthful innocence informed her earlier work, her finely aged voice exuding Grace Slick confidence through the strength and affection of a loving grandmother. “That’s What I Remember” opens as a visceral biography, Friedman’s life experiences transformed into a jaunty audio play telling the fascinating autobiography of the songwriter. Other songs, like “Our War,” “The End” and the title track, recall the quieter moments on Jefferson Airplane‘s Crown of Creation (1968), though there is a pervading Roy Harper-like quality to the observations portrayed with poetic honesty. Her version of Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl‘s “Springhill Mining Disaster” is especially chilling, while “IPod” examines the escape tech obsession and “Southern Comfortable” brilliantly defends the oft derided South. It’s a consistently strong collection of songs from one who has been there and is still here.

It should be noted that Chinatown was mixed in Jackson Browne‘s studio and Van Dyke Parks plays piano on some tracks, but such “star” affiliations are truly secondary to the power of the music. Ruthann Friedman has lived. Perhaps we can all learn something if we just stop and listen to her.