Judee Sill :: Crayon Angel

Here’s part of the real genius of Judee Sill. She writes exclusively in these grandiose, nearly-mawkish word pictures, full of cowboy Saviors and inter-dimensional portals, and with such earnest delivery. There’s nothing arch or playful in there, because it’s her way of talking seriously about the awful things in her life without discussing them head-on.

It’s not that I think Judee actually believes in a gun-slinging Jesus crossing prairies to romance her. I do think however, she sees evidence of deep magic in her world, but she laments not having the tools to access it. She’s tried to undo a lifetime of abuse and addiction, but come up short. “Magic rings I made have turned my finger green / and my mystic roses died.” It’s part self-preservation to remove her personal details from the discussion and partly a doorway for her audience. She speaks in a mythology that’s both highly idiosyncratic, but also so far removed from traditional frameworks of spirituality that it’s universal.