Blue

Recorded at A&M in Hollywood with Henry Lewy engineering and almost no overdubbing, it followed months of travel through Europe, including a spell living in the caves at Matala on Crete. She had picked up an Appalachian dulcimer along the way and wrote on it because it packed easier than a guitar.

Reviews on release were respectful rather than awed; the stature accumulated over decades. Rolling Stone placed it third on its 2020 list of the greatest albums, and an NPR critics' poll named it the finest album ever made by a woman.