When I Think Of You Judy Mayhan Signed & Numbered Limited Edition 1 some time and they were part of my repertoire in the the false about ourselves....to not lose sight of Judy’s health declined during the 1990s, but as the Judy’s Notes 1970s. The two settings are very different. Singing compassion, in the face of pain....and to let it be new millennium dawned she was determined to What can you say about a song that the song for an audience is exhilarating....a place where there transforming, this life. preserve her musical legacy. Her family formed doesn’t say if you sang it right? I’ve never known. is only one chance to do it really right....theatre — Judy Mayhan Shayomi for that purpose, and Shayomi reissued There are journeys to the inner depths....there are defined, as it were. I have thrived on the exchange Judy’s three LP albums on CD. things to be mined there...attitudes, feelings, of energy from stage to audience and that “back at About Judy This is the first of a series of retrospective CDs to observations, and most importantly, those hidden ya” feeling. It’s all in the realm of mystery and magic Judy Mayhan grew up in Kansas, and she took to be compiled from previously unreleased recordings of and not so hidden experiences that come with just to me. The recording studio allows for an entirely music at an early age. She studied music and theater Judy at the peak of her musical powers, from the mid- living a life. I have been lucky to “experience” a different atmosphere and approach to creating music in college, then hitched to New York in 1960 and 70s to the mid-80s. Recorded in the late 1970s, Judy song. I have had incredible journeys into the known that is equally intriguing. became part of the Greenwich Village folk music plays alone, singing an eclectic mix of styles ranging and unknown spaces and places of myself. I have In the studio I was fortunate to get to work with scene. Traveling to the West Coast with Hoyt Axton, from folk to singer/songwriter to jazz ballads. lusted after that moment when a song truly reached musician and master recording engineer Malcolm she made her first record album in 1962, singing — Nick Wilson me, when a sudden shiver appeared on the nape of Cecil, who has recorded Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, traditional folk songs and playing Applachian dulcimer. For more about Judy see www.judymayhan.com. the neck, when there is no argument, so powerful The Isley Brothers, Stephen Stills, and Minnie Moving on from folk, in 1970 and 1971 Judy made two are the words and/or the melody. I have known Riperton, to mention a few. I have him to thank for major label record albums as a singer/songwriter, some of those moments, and they fill me with providing me with the most incredible atmosphere in playing piano with a backup band of seasoned studio gratitude. which to explore nine of the songs you hear on this players. (See p. 14.) I have had love affairs with a song I heard, CD. It allowed me to spontaneously create two In the early 1970s, Judy moved north of San recognizing myself in it, and something much larger pieces that wouldn’t exist otherwise, The Bells and Francisco to Mendocino County, where she continued than myself. My attraction is usually to the lyrics, Gratitude. to grow and mature musically, writing songs, playing and then the melody. Sometimes both are one The songs on this CD are journeys I have taken. gigs with many area musicians, singing blues, country beautiful thing, able to do it all, able to stand alone Some led me to the mine fields of my life....others to and ultimately jazz. As a consummate musician with in a timeless foreverness, as a painting, a poem, a inexpressible beauty....all have changed me in one world-class talent, Judy gained a devoted following in line from a play. No artist will tell you they’re entirely way or another. I offer them to you. the course of years of live performances at clubs and happy with their work...it’s an ongoing process. I’ve concert halls, including San Francisco’s Keystone never sung a song the same way twice. And that’s Dedication Korner and Great American Music Hall, Los Angeles’ true whether I was singing alone with no one to hear, To my kith and kin,especially my soul mate, McCabe’s Guitar Shop, Mendocino’s beloved Sea or on stage with people listening, or in a recording Robert Boler, my daughters, Schelagh and Omie, Gull, and nearby Fort Bragg’s Cotton Auditorium, studio. and my grandchildren, Ashley, Kristen, Matthew which she filled to capacity for a 1985 concert. The songs gathered here are from two sources, Christopher, and Audrey. But life dealt Judy a cruel blow in 1986, when she The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on To Renee Roatcap, 1957-1999, a fine musician was stricken with a rare hearing disorder that made March 13, 1977, and Malcolm Cecil’s Tonto and an extraordinary friend. Together we plumbed normal sounds seem painful and distorted. Music and Recording Studio in Los Angeles, January 15, 1979. the depths of artistic passion, and I loved her for song had been the center of her life, her very identity, With two exceptions, I lived with these songs for never wavering from the ability to seek the truth and but she could no longer sing or play piano. 2 3 — Sally Salke, 1970 1. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress monastery, calling me in. A hallucination? A dream? A vision born of late night weariness? I do not care. It’s as real this second as it was then. And, without my knowing it, the engineer had turned the recording by Jimmy Webb machines back on and caught it on tape. The ocean’s tides are pulled by the moon....so is the heart of all living things. You can’t own her, even though you try and try...You want her guidance, but she just shines and sometimes doesn’t shine.....What an incredible metaphor for what seems to be the human dilemma....the many ways that expectation turns 3. Down In Your Soul out to be something else entirely.... one trips and falls and misses the supreme moment.....Repeatedly you by Todd Barkan and Judy Mayhan can’t pin it down...And at those moments, the sky really is made of stone....Reality is back on earth somewhere, that’s for sure. Joe Cocker’s version moved me completely and was the inspiration that One of the many songs I have sung to myself, for myself, to urge that self towards the essence of directed my own. myself. It’s often very easy to lose myself, not have a clue. But in the thickest of that lostness, there is a touch point within that I have returned to infinite numbers of times.....a place where I’ve found what I See her how she flies Once the sun did shine I fell out of her eyes thought I’d lost. Each and every time, it’s “one sweet moment of surprise” to find it. When it happens, Golden, sails across the sky Lord it felt so fine I fell out of her heart nothing in the world can touch it. Close enough to touch The moon, a phantom, rose I fell down on my face But careful if you try Through the mountains and the pines I tripped and missed the stars Down in your soul, there’s a song you can feel, If you want to see where you’re goin’ to, Though she looks as warm as gold Then the darkness fell I fell and fell alone It’s something that no one can steal, And you don’t care how you get back from, The moons’s a harsh mistress The moon’s a Harsh mistress The moon’s a harsh mistress It’s your own tune, all and in part, You never gotta be alone again, The moon can be so cold. It’s hard to love her well. The sky is made of stone. Dance to the song in your heart. It’s all inside you, Published by Universal Polygram International Pub. Inc. The moon’s a harsh mistress Let go, let go and see what happens, She’s hard to call your own. If you want to see where you’re goin’ to, You’ll never believe your eyes, 2. The Bells And you don’t care how you get back from, You’ll give fortune and fame and everything by Judy Mayhan You never gotta be alone again, For that one sweet moment of surprise. It’s all inside you waitin’ to begin, When this came to me, or through me, I was standing ten feet away from the microphone in the studio, Let go, let go and see what happens, It’s your own tune, all and in part, having just declared it enough for one night. I remember saying that I couldn’t sing another note. On the You’ll never believe your eyes, Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance ceiling were three sets of hanging chimes. I ran both hands through them and was transported to a garden You’ll give fortune and fame and everything To the song in your heart. of flowers whose colors were blinding.