Even among folkie die-hards, Buffy Sainte-Marie has always been something of an acquired taste. In the coffeehouse scene of the early Sixties, when she was wowing the likes of Bob Dylan with the smoldering passion of protest songs such as "Universal Soldier" and "Many a Mile," her songwriting skills were highly regarded (in fact, Elvis himself liked her "Until It's Time for You to Go" enough to take it to the Top Forty). But the wild vibrato of her otherwise pure soprano voice often had people either gagging or laughing out loud.

As the Seventies wore on, Sainte-Marie seemed increasingly at odds with the times, and her ill-conceived attempts at country crossover and a sex-kitten image were sure-fire indicators that she was artistically rattled. But by reaching back to her Native American roots (she is a mixed-blood Cree who was adopted and raised by Caucasian parents), performing on reservations and getting a star turn on, of all places, Sesame Street, she seemed to rediscover her creative will. Coincidence and Likely Stories, Sainte-Marie's first album in fifteen years, is a winning comeback that favors state-of-the-art computer instrumentation over the expected acoustic guitars. In lesser hands, the washes of synthesized sounds would be an egregious mistake, but Sainte-Marie has artfully managed to tame the technology and bend it to her needs. The result is eleven songs that have deep thematic resonance and that are among her most appealing work.

Although they occasionally lapse into predictable, tedious New Age politics, certain of Sainte-Marie's pointed lyrics transcend just about anything younger, angrier songwriters are churning out. For example, the listener is stopped cold on the song "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" when she intones: "My girlfriend Annie Mae talked about uranium/Her head was filled with bullets and her body dumped/The FBI cut off her hands and told us she'd died of exposure."

Even after thirty years of protesting through her music, Buffy Sainte-Marie still maintains a harrowing edge. Her voice, which lacks the annoying tremolo of yore, has mellowed into a pleasurable instrument. With interest in Native American concerns at an all-time high, Coincidence and Likely Stories deserves an impact beyond the handful of committed folkies who never gave up on this eclectic talent. (RS 644)

TOM GRAVES