Saturday Morning Records: #8 — Billie Holiday’s Solitude (aka ‘Billie Holiday Sings’)

A new series for paying subscribers — celebrating favourite albums for the weekend

I‘ve written often about my Billie Holiday fandom. And will do so again. A small sample here:

RNZ Feature: The Music of Billie Holiday

Poem: Billie Holiday With A Gardenia In Her Hair.

On: Billie Holiday's Voice

Billie Holiday and Me Vs. ChatGPT

Billie Holiday: The Last Interview and Other Conversations

Billie Holiday: The Centennial Collection

In a perfect world, I sometimes think I might like to write a very slim volume dedicated to the music and life of Billie Holiday, incorporating my life and listening to that music. But, you know, dreams are free. And Substack is here in the meantime.

I often think of Billie Holiday as Sunday Music, maybe it’s Gloomy Sunday and that sorrow that hangs in her voice. Maybe it’s maudlin to wallow in it on a Sunday, but weirdly it helps me to fight off any blues about Monday arriving too quickly on the back of a 48-hour reprieve.