3 from Valerie Carter (Howdy Moon 1974, Just a Stone's Throw 1977, Wild Child 1978)

Truly a beautiful woman.  A natural beauty, incredible to look at.  

Especially with that so retro pouty-lips look on the Wild Child cover, so typical of the times.

Valerie Carter [Valerie Gail Zakian Carter] is an American singer-songwriter. Carter is perhaps best known as a back-up vocalist who has recorded and performed with a number of singers including Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Linda Ronstadt, Christopher Cross and, most notably, James Taylor.

Carter has written songs for Judy Collins ("Cook with Honey" from Collins' 1973 album True Stories and Other Dreams), Jackson Browne ("Love Needs a Heart" from his 1977 album Running on Empty) and "Turn It into Something Good" (from Earth, Wind & Fire's 1980 album Faces) to name but three.

She has recorded six albums of her own and was purportedly the inspiration for the Jackson Browne song "That Girl Could Sing."

[Note that in the seventies there were only 2 releases 'of her own', the other 4 came later.]

Of note too is the fact that the James Newton Howard I featured recently is arranger of the second.

The music here is standard-issue female singer songwriter with not just folky influences along the lines of the earlier Lesley Duncan post but the all-important Joni Mitchell influence-- such a huge, huge part of the decade for female artists.  Not to deny her brilliance, I've mentioned before multiple times I love Joni's music to death and she wrote some of my all-time favourite songs like For Free, Jericho, and the oddly co-opted by the Xmas season, River, from the Blue album.  And I've also drawn attention to the fact she put out an amazing long progressive track called Paprika Plains on the otherwise blah and bland Don Juan LP.  Anyways, this post is not about Joni.  Consider Heartache, from the 1977 album:

(It's amazing how much this foreshadows that 'Lilith Fair' female alternative ssw style that became so so huge in the nineties with artists like Sarah McLachlan.)

The Joni influence is obvious on Back to Blue Some More, which, not said to detract, is quite an intelligently composed song, with its permutations in the chords for the middle section:

The title track for Wild Child is pure melancholy magic:

The feeling is just heartbreaking.

I was amused to hear Allee Willis' wonderful composition The Blue Side (from that double-LP demo set that I loved so much and so few people noticed) appears here.

Her wiki entry is unusually exhaustive.  It begins:

She recorded the eponymous Howdy Moon as a member of folk group Howdy Moon in 1974.

She later left the group to release her first solo album, Just a Stone's Throw Away, in 1977, under ARC/Columbia. Just a Stone's Throw Away featured guest appearances from artists such as Maurice White, Lowell George, Bill Payne, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne and Deniece Williams.

In 1979 Carter went on to release her second album Wild Child, again under the ARC/Columbia imprint. Wild Child was produced by James Newton Howard.

In 1996, Carter returned with The Way It Is, in which she covered songs by Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Van Morrison and Warren Zevon.

Continuing, curiously:

Personal Life:

In August and October 2009, Carter was arrested in St. Petersburg, Florida, for possession of drugs. She successfully completed all of the court's requirements, and she became a graduate of Judge Dee Anna Farnell's drug court program on May 25, 2011. American singer-songwriter James Taylor appeared at her drug court graduation ceremonies in a congratulatory effort on behalf of all of the graduates.  

It Ends:

Carter died of a heart attack on March 4, 2017, at the age of 64. She is survived by her mother, Dorothy "Dot" Carter, and sister, Jan Carter, who continues the Official Valerie Carter Fan Club as an active Facebook group.

I threw in the Howdy Moon record too, it's very charmingly simple.  

Has nice moments, purely folk rock/ssw/soft rock. It's too bad the guys didn't allow her more songwriting opportunity, as her 3 tracks really stand out.

Valerie's backup vocals are noticeable for their exquisite girlishness (and high pitch) and beautifully done vibratos.

Wow, what a lovely group of long hairs!  

Gotta love the expressions on their faces-- how did they do that??  Or rather, with what drug, as my wife would say.

The lovely Cook with Honey song mentioned above showcases that formidable voice: