Judith Allen Roderick (December 14, 1942 – January 22, 1992) was an American folk and blues singer and songwriter, described by Allmusic as: "One of the finest white folk/blues singers of the early to mid-'60s."
Judy Roderick played the Philly Folk Festival in 1962, and was heard by manager Lee Silberstein, who secured her a record deal with Columbia Records. Her first album, Ain't Nothin' But The Blues, produced by Bobby Scott, was released in 1964. Described at Allmusic as "an eclectic mix of traditional acoustic folk tunes and large arrangements of blues tunes", it featured John Hammond Jr. on harmonica. She performed at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, and at many leading club venues in the eastern United States, developing a loyal following, but a second album for Columbia was never completed after Roderick and Scott disagreed on the direction it should take.
Roderick played/sang blues like no other up and down the east coast, in folk venues from Boston to Coconut Grove, including some of the major blues shows at Cafe au Gogo. She was signed for Vanguard Records by Maynard Solomon, and recorded her second and best-regarded album, Woman Blue, released in 1965.
She began writing songs in collaboration with Bill Ashford, and returned to Colorado in 1969, forming a new band, 60,000,000 Buffalo. Their album of original material, Nevada Jukebox, produced by Bill Szymczyk, was released on the Atco label in 1972. However, the band broke up the following year.
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| The Big Sky Mudflaps |
Roderick moved to Hamilton, Montana, where she continued to perform, often with partner Dexter Payne in his swing band, The Big Sky Mudflaps; she sang some of the songs on two of the band's albums. In 1982, she and Payne formed a new band, Judy Roderick & The Forbears, and recorded a self-titled album with musicians including Mac Rebennack (Dr. John). The album received a limited independent release on cassette only in 1984. Dexter Payne, turned out to be her partner in love and in music for her last 16 years.
A diabetic since childhood, Judy Roderick died of a heart attack from complications due to the disease on January 22, 1992 at the age of 49.
The album Woman Blue was remastered and reissued by Vanguard in 1993. One of Roderick and Ashford's songs, "Floods of South Dakota", was later recorded by Tim and Mollie O'Brien; their performance was nominated for a Grammy. The cassette album Judy Roderick & The Forbears, with an additional track of Judy singing a solo version of Floods of South Dakota, recorded in MT (1976) was remastered for digital release and issued on CD by Dexofon Records, in 2008.
(Edited from Wikipedia & Bandcamp notes)