Judy Small - a real (great) person

Background 1:  Judy Small, folk singer from Australia had a brief period of popularity in America during the mid to late 80's.  As folk singing was losing  popularity a about that time she never "made it big" in America.

Background 2:  I'm involved for my 6th year in the Sac State based Renaissance Society, a mini-school on campus where seniors and retired people conduct seminars and teach each other everything from ancient Roman history to current trends in knitting.  One of the seminars I'm taking is about Protest Singers and the Songs They Sing.

It appeared to me that my Protest Singers class was likely going to focus on the more well-known singers of protest songs such as Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger.  There are enough people in he class that I could just sit tight and listen to others present but for once in my life I thought I had something unique to share.   I began to develop a 1 hour presentation about Judy Small and I volunteered to make that presentation.

In the course of my research I found that Judy had at one time sold a 54-apge book of her songs and I even found that book on eBay listed at $40.  It was a poor listing, however, with no description of which songs, how many songs, or whether it was accompaniment or with words.

Thinking outside the box, my wife Carolyn emailed Judy Small asking if she had a music book she could share with us. Well, darned if she didn't geet a very nice response from Judy and a computer readable copy of that music book.  Judy admitted that she didn't read nor write music so the book has the lyrics, the melody, and the appropriate guitar chords.  It will make a perfect piano fake book.  I can't wait to introduce some of the songs to our grandkids.

Thank you Judy Small.

p.s.  My presentation is set for March 4.  I"ll let you know how it goes.