The other night, I watched a pretty cheesy rom-com by the name of Drinking Buddies. I know, not my usual style. But the whole thing was worth it when half way through the end of Act II, a familiar song caught my attention. 

The song - "Tonight" by Sibylle Baier. 

I've either dreamed of this song before or heard it in another life, because the tune is so absolutely familiar that the fibers of my skin resonate with the melody. 

But I don't know anything about Sibylle Baier, and information on the Internet is scarce. She was born in Germany (I'm guessing in the 50s), learned to play guitar and piano as a young girl, and, between 1970 and 1973, made home reel-to-reel tape recordings of her very first album, Colour Green. 

Thirty years later, her son Robby (who also maintains her website) compiled a CD from these recordings and managed to give one to J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., who turned the CD over to Orange Twin Records. The album was released in February of 2006. 

Baier's voice reminds me of Karen Dalton and Vashti Bunyan and the other beauties that honed the sound of female folk in the '60s and '70s. The songs are bare, stripped down, with only Baier and her guitar to create the melodic landscape. And anything more would diminish Baier's powerful vocals, her resonating lyrics. Colour Green is definitely a gem of an album, somber yet real, and something that was almost meant not to be.