The aim of Lady Sings The Blues is not to produce a slavish imitation of Billie

Billie Holiday's life-story, as it has been told and retold over the years, is a catalogue of woes and tribulations. Reinforced by some of her best-known recordings, such as Gloomy Sunday, Strange Fruit and Don't Explain, it has come to define her image to the world. But the image is misleading. Millions of other people have lived troubled and unhappy lives, yet none of them became Billie Holiday. It's because of her rare gifts that she is loved and revered today, a century after her birth, and celebrated with affection by artists around the world.

This is the second album based on Lady Sings The Blues, the concert-show inspired by Billie. Its very title, Laughing At Life, should help to dispel some of the accumulated gloom, and the music itself will certainly manage the rest. The sheer variety contained in these songs shows off Billie's expressive range better than any learned article. There are 'swing-sing' numbers from the 1930s, ballads and 'mistreated woman' pieces from the 1940s, and a hint of the wealth of classic American songs which she finally got around to recording in the fifties.

The aim of Lady Sings The Blues is not to produce a slavish imitation of Billie or an exact reproduction of any of her records, even if that were possible. It's to revisit her repertoire and in so doing evoke the spirit, and to a certain extent the period, of her work. Dave Gelly

Track Listing

• Laughing at Life
• That's Life I Guess
• God Bless the Child
• Miss Brown to You
• Good Morning Heartache
• How Could You?
• Comes Love
• You've Changed
• Ain't Nobody's Business
• Lover Man
• Now Baby or Never
• My Man
• Fine and Mellow

Additional Details

Label: Big Bear

Genre: Blues

Language: English

Run Time: 68 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 09/12/25

UPC: 5018128000272