ODE TO RONEE BLAKLEY

Whatever happened to Ronee Blakley? In the early 1970s she recorded two acclaimed albums, sang backup for Bob Dylan and earned an Academy Award nomination for her amazing portrayal of a fragile country music superstar in Robert Altman's Nashville. After that she stopped releasing records and faded into a mostly lackluster acting career (the exception being her juicy role as an alcoholic mother in the original Nightmare on Elm Street).

Beyond her songs in Nashville, I had never heard Blakley's recordings until this week. When I learned that Collector's Choice Music recently reissued her 1970s albums, I cruised to the record store and picked up her self-titled debut. It's a masterful achievement, containing eleven original compositions that range in style from country twang to sophisticated piano ballads that recall Laura Nyro and Joni Mitchell. All this time I thought she was just a sweet-voiced honkey tonk hick, and it was a wonderful to discover that she's an unsung hero who transcends musical genres. I can' wait to pick up Welcome, her second album.

Could Blakley make a comeback, thirty years after forsaking the recording biz? There's hope that she might rise again because four months ago she made a rare concert appearance in LA, performing some new songs along with her older material.