Born on this day ...

[Ruby]

Rita Coolidge was born on this day in 1945, in Lafayette, Tennessee. Very active and popular in the post Woodstock glory days, she was already making a name for herself when she met Kris Kristofferson in 1970 (they married in 1973) with whom she recorded three albums alongside her own solos. They had met at an airport when they were taking the same flight to Tennessee. He famously left the plane with her at Memphis instead of carrying on to his own destination – Nashville. She’s of Cherokee extraction, a heritage she wears proudly – raised in a musical family where it was tradition to record and retell stories in song.

Delaney and Bonnie discovered her and invited her to join them on their travels which was how her career began – prior to that, and after graduating from Florida State with a degree in art, she’d been plugging away singing jingles for radio stations – the acronyms – you know “WKRP in Cincinnati”, that sort of thing!! The association with D&B led to her meeting, among others, Stephen Stills with whom she became romantically entangled, but then ditched not too much later for Graham Nash. Legend, urban or otherwise, says that the stuffed giraffe on Stills’ debut solo album cover had been a gift from Rita Coolidge, or that they had mutually acquired it while still together. It’s been the subject of much speculation, that red giraffe! She also joined Leon Russell and Joe Cocker on the ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’ tour which sounds like a completely debauched affair – no surprises there!



Later in life, having worked with Robbie Robertson on his project recording with Native American artists, and at his suggestion, she and her sister Priscilla and Priscilla’s daughter Laura Satterfield formed a group named Walela and recorded three albums honouring their Cherokee lineage, language and music. Tragically, in 2014, Priscilla was shot dead by her husband as she slept, after which he also put an end to his own miserable existence – an event which has taken a severe and lasting toll on the family, especially Rita who had been extraordinarily closely bonded with her oldest sibling.
 
She scooped up a couple of Grammy’s in her heyday and also made a Bond theme song … “All Time High” from Octopussy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFurkDf6WXg

This is a Walela song – from their debut eponymously title album … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXEENirp6Cw

With Kristofferson … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EACg8GoSm_4

And one of her best known, I would imagine … “We’re All Alone” – written by Boz Scaggs …