This record is so beautiful I almost don’t want to share it with anyone – I want to stay inside its pastoral bliss and have Carol Kleyn‘s voice and harp play me off to sleep every night from now until eternity. But I also want everyone to hear the joys contained in Love Has Made Me Stronger, given that Kleyn has waited 34 years for this record to be reissued, via Drag City. Simply put, it’s a lost gem from a period that produced some of the best music you’re ever likely to hear…and this record deserves to join the pantheon of greats.

Carol Kleyn was taken under the wing of legendary hippy Bob Brown in the late 1960s after attending the University of California and promptly dropping out by the turn of the decade. She began writing poetry and songs while protests against the Vietnam War took place all around her, and on her 21st birthday Brown bought her a harp as thanks for helping with the creation of homemade instruments for his one-man orchestra. Refusing tuition, Kleyn resolved to teach herself and eventually ended up writing songs, playing small gigs and performing on street corners. What follows sounds like the stuff of myth, but Kleyn met and performed for the likes of Graham Nash, Phil Spector, the Eagles and Led Zeppelin. Finally, she opened for the Allman Brothers and when no record deal materialised, she released Love Has Made Me Stronger herself in 1976. Just two more albums followed in 1980 and 1983 and nothing until this reissue in 2011.

Turning to the music, Kleyn’s voice shares similarities with Judy Collins, Sandy Denny and Joni Mitchell and the music deals in the familiar hippyish tropes of being close to nature, dancing, swimming, flowers and so on. But it’s the playing on this record and how it combines with Kleyn’s high, floating voice that’s truly outstanding. Her harp sounds dance across the record like faeries, leaving shimmering trails of beauty, and when her fingers don’t light upon those strings she turns her hand to piano and organ with the same accomplished grace.

From start to finish there’s brilliance to choose from; opener ‘Love’s Goin’ Round’ begins with Kleyn’s haunting falsetto before her harp fades up to join the vocals in the mix, the song slowly becoming sprightly. If you think of the sound of Joanna Newsom circa The Milk-Eyed Mender then you’re getting quite close to the music of Carol Kleyn. Then there’s ‘Baby Come Close’ in which Kleyn manipulates her harp to make it sound almost like a banjo and sings “There were many nights I spent alone, wonderin’ if the sun would shine any more / well, since you been around the sun’s been shining so bright / she shines all night”. As her fingers dance up and down the strings, Kleyn’s voices rises up and down the scales effortlessly. Listening to this song just fills the heart with joy and hope, it really is that beautiful.

Title track ‘Love Has Made Me Stronger’, a song written for Bob Brown, is piano-led and shows off Kleyn’s innate musical ability as she carries the track on just keys and voice. She sings of love as nature, being as high as the highest tree, and deeper than the deepest seas. Ok, it sounds cliched but the sincerity it’s sung with can’t be argued with. Another piano track, ‘Mountain Child’, tells of Kleyn’s connection to nature and listening to her voice hit those high notes in the chorus is natural pleasure itself.

If that wasn’t enough, there’s also ‘Come On Babe Let’s Dance’ and ‘You Know I Love You’ which recreate the deep organ sounds used by The Band’s Garth Hudson and provide an unexpected groove to the last couple of tracks.

Many records from this period are reissued these days – some worth hearing, some certainly not – but Love Has Made Me Stronger completely merits its reintroduction and a new audience. Carol Kleyn created beautiful music decades ago – it’s still here to be cherished and loved, and absolutely deserves to be.