Heather Mullen - Heather Mullen (1991)

When Living Colour's Vernon Reid founded the Black Rock Coalition in the 1980s, he was fed up with the way Black artists were pigeonholed as urban contemporary and rap artists. There's certainly nothing wrong with a Black artist choosing urban or rap because that's his/her preference, but there's definitely something wrong with a Black artist being denied access to heavy metal, punk or folk because of his/her skin color--and that's what Reid's BRC was trying to correct. It was always refreshing when Black artists defied the pigeonholing, and in the 1980s and 1990s, the examples ranged from Living Colour and 24-7 Spyz to Tracy Chapman and Toshi Reagon. Another example is Heather Mullen, a talented singer/songwriter whose self-titled album drew on the influence of Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins. Not fantastic but definitely enjoyable, sensitive pop-rock/adult contemporary offerings like "Forgiveness," "Tidal Wave" and "Be Who You Are" indicated that Mullen (who is blessed with a clear, lucid voice) was someone to keep an eye on. Unfortunately, this little known release didn't do very much commercially--and when the late 1990s arrived, Mullen still hadn't recorded a second album.

Review by Alex Henderson