''Sweet America'' was the twelfth studio album by

Buffy Sainte-Marie Buffy Sainte-Marie, (born Beverly Sainte-Marie, February 20, 1941) is an Indigenous Canadian-American (Piapot Cree Nation) singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. While working in these are ...

and her last before retiring from music to work on ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

'' and in education. The album was dedicated to the

American Indian Movement The American Indian Movement (AIM) is a Native American grassroots movement which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1968, initially centered in urban areas in order to address systemic issues of poverty, discrimination, and police ...

and featured some songs with tribal rhythms and vocals that she was later to develop on her 1992 comeback ''

Coincidence and Likely Stories ''Coincidence and Likely Stories'' (1992) is an album by Buffy Sainte-Marie, her first in sixteen years, during which time she had been raising her son and working on the children's television show ''Sesame Street''. The album itself was largely r ...

''. After parting with

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...

, Sainte-Marie signed with

ABC Records ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels befo ...

, then home of such artists as

Steely Dan Steely Dan is an American rock band founded in 1971 in New York by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Initially the band had a stable lineup, but in 1974, Becker and Fagen retired from live ...

, the early

Pointer Sisters The Pointer Sisters are an American pop and R&B singing group from Oakland, California, that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, jazz, electronic music, bebop, bl ...

Isaac Hayes Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and composer. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwri ...

and the

James Gang James Gang is an American rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1966. The band went through a variety of line-up changes until they recorded their first album as a power trio consisting of Joe Walsh (guitars, lead vocals), Tom Kriss (bass), and ...

. Although ''Sweet America'' received a little more attention from the press than her two MCA albums '' Buffy'' and '' Changing Woman'', most reviews were not favorable. When MCA acquired ABC Records in 1979, ''Sweet America'' went

out of print __NOTOC__ An out-of-print (OOP) or out-of-commerce item or work is something that is no longer being published. The term applies to all types of printed matter, visual media, sound recordings, and video recordings. An out-of-print book is a book ...

along with her two MCA albums, and remaining copies were not thereafter circulated. Claims that her retirement was motivated by the collapse of ABC Records are unlikely because she had not been recording for over three years when the label collapsed.

Track listing

All songs written by Buffy Sainte-Marie except where noted. # "Sweet America" (Barry Greenfield) – 3:04 # "

Wynken, Blynken and Nod "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" is a popular poem for children written by American writer and poet Eugene Field and published on March 9, 1889. The original title was "Dutch Lullaby". The poem is a fantasy bed-time story about three children sailing a ...

" (

Eugene Field Eugene Field Sr. (September 2, 1850 – November 4, 1895) was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. He was known as the "poet of childhood". Early life and education Field was born in St. Louis, Missour ...

, Buffy Sainte-Marie) – 3:08 # "Where Poets Go" – 2:52 # "Free the Lady" (Barry Greenfield) – 3:22 # "America My Home" – 2:32 # "Look at the Facts" – 2:12 # "I Don't Need No City Life" – 3:10 # "Sweet January" – 2:49 # "Qu'appelle Valley, Saskatchewan" – 3:19 # "Honey Can You Hang Around" – 3:15 # "I Been Down" – 2:03 # "Starwalker" – 2:32 # "Ain't No Time for the Worrying Blues" – 1:00

Track notes

* "Wynken, Blynken and Nod" was later recorded by

The Doobie Brothers The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band formed in 1970 in San Jose, California, known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their vocal harmonies. Active for five decades, with their greatest success in the 1970s, ...

on the 1980 ''

'' album '' In Harmony'' and included on their best-of '' Long Train Runnin': 1970-2000''. * "Starwalker" was re-recorded on her 1992 comeback album ''

''. * "Sweet America" and the album's first single45 (single) discography for ABC Records
/ref> "Free The Lady" were both recorded originally on writer Barry Greenfield's 1973

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

album titled ''Blue Sky''. * "Look at the Facts" was re-recorded (with some lyric changes) and retitled as "Carry It On," on her 2015 album '' Power in the Blood''. * "Qu'appelle Valley, Saskatchewan" was later covered by British New Wave band Red Box, who released it in 1984 as their second single. It later appeared on their 1985 album '' The Circle & the Square''.

References

{{Authority control 1976 albums Buffy Sainte-Marie albums Albums produced by Henry Lewy ABC Records albums American Indian Movement