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It's My Way!

Folk / Country / Folk revival · 1964

It's My Way!

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Why listen

An exposed, trembling voice makes public arguments feel close enough to unsettle the room.

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Tracks · previews

English editorial edition

Album story

The guitar can hold its course while the voice suddenly changes height, weight or direction. That tension is the starting point for It’s My Way! Buffy Sainte-Marie’s debut does not smooth every edge into a pleasing line. A wavering note or an abrupt increase in intensity can become part of the sentence’s meaning.

Vanguard released the album in 1964. Its thirteen tracks combine original writing with traditional material, using a mostly spare setting. Art Davis adds bass to the opening song and Patrick Sky contributes another guitar to He Lived Alone In Town. Elsewhere, the limited instrumental space makes changes in vocal delivery unusually exposed. Listen for decisions within a phrase before trying to classify the whole record as protest music.

Arguments with a human scale

Now That the Buffalo’s Gone addresses Indigenous land dispossession, while Universal Soldier turns towards individual responsibility for war. Cod’ine makes dependence and suffering feel insistently present. These subjects are not interchangeable slogans: each requires a different relationship between the singer and the listener. Nor should every narrator be treated as a literal account of the performer’s biography. The performances can be examined as choices of emphasis, pacing and address.

The small sound that changes the room

Cripple Creek introduces the springy resonance of the mouth bow, using the mouth as a resonating space. It offers a striking change without needing a larger ensemble. Longer narrative songs and shorter statements also interrupt one another’s momentum. Follow the sequence through to the title song and the record becomes more varied than a catalogue of distress: there is room for physical enjoyment and a voice claiming its own direction.

Then and later

Billboard’s review of 18 April 1964 admired the voice’s dramatic range but considered the record suitable for specialised folk programming. That combination is more informative than an unsupported claim of immediate mass success. Its selection for the Library of Congress’s 2015 registry represents later recognition. The linked thirteen-track digital edition carries a 2006 copyright notice, not a new recording date. On a second pass, use the guitar as your reference point and notice when the voice pulls away from it.

The album through its tracks

Keep track of the guitar’s movement, then notice where the voice pauses or rises against it.

  1. Universal Soldier

    A compact guitar setting carries a widening argument. The song moves through different soldiers rather than allowing war to remain solely the business of distant leaders. Its demand for individual responsibility is a position to consider, not a prerequisite for appreciating the performance. Listen to the way a repeated melodic shape accommodates successive examples, then notice the firmness of the phrase endings. The vocal tremor does not blur the direction of the words. If another singer’s version introduced you to the song, return to the proportions of this original album performance. Without a large chorus or an elaborate instrumental climax, it puts the listener inside the question it is asking.

    Reference · Artist discography: 1964 original programme

  2. Cripple Creek

    The mouth bow gives this performance its elastic, rounded sound. Instead of assuming a banjo or an electronic effect, listen to the changing resonance produced around a plucked string and the player’s mouth. The rhythm feels physical even with so little equipment involved. Try keeping a steady pulse with your foot while following the smaller changes in the sound above it. After the weight of Cod’ine, this brief performance opens another kind of space. It is not merely relief from the album’s difficult subjects. It shows how one performer can build a different scene with a voice and a small instrument, making pleasure part of the record’s expressive range.

    Reference · Ace Records: Vanguard reissue and instrumentation

Listen next

Compare The Times They Are A-Changin’ for a different relationship between spare accompaniment and a questioning voice in 1964.

The Times They Are a-Changin' ↗
References & editorial note

Written for English readers. Album facts are referenced below; listening suggestions are editorial interpretations. AI-assisted editorial review; not independently human-reviewed.