She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina,
Buffy Sainte-Marie's seventh album, is a varied collection of new originals by the singer/songwriter, along with covers of songs by her friends. It's an ambitious work, recorded at five different studios in New York, Los Angeles, and London, and co-produced by
Sainte-Marie with
Jack Nitzsche, who brings in some elaborate arrangements at times, as well as musicians including sometime-bandmates in
Crazy Horse,
Neil Young,
Danny Whitten,
Ralph Molina, and
Billy Talbot. They are heard, for instance, in
Sainte-Marie's feeling version of fellow Canadian
Young's "Helpless," a song he cut previously with
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, although it is a personal reminiscence of a Canadian childhood, and thus a song with which
Sainte-Marie can identify closely. The album also boasts an excellent
Gerry Goffin/
Carole King song, "Smack Water Jack," which
Sainte-Marie performs alone to her own piano accompaniment. (The song also appears on
King's LP
Tapestry, released simultaneously with
She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina.) Another notable track is a previously unheard and typically poetic and emotional
Leonard Cohen song, "Bells," and
Sainte-Marie presents her version of a song
Cohen, too, has covered, "Song of the French Partisan" (aka "The Partisan"). That is far from the only politically oriented tune on the disc, though.
Sainte-Marie also presents "Moratorium," a reflection on troops serving, misguidedly, in her opinion, in Vietnam, which includes an expletive followed by "Bring the brothers home." A similar sentiment informs "Soldier Blue,"
Sainte-Marie's theme song for the recently released film concerning mistreatment of American Indians, another constant in her work. The album also contains love songs like "Now You've Been Gone for a Long Time," performed with equal effectiveness.
She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina finds
Sainte-Marie holding onto many of the themes and the folk styles with which she began, but, with the assistance of
Nitzsche and others, expanding into mainstream pop and rock successfully. ~ William Ruhlmann