Judith Durham

Judith Durham was best known internationally for the four years she spent in the 1960s as the lead singer for the Seekers, the Australian-spawned folk quartet that briefly rivalled the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in chart success. Her own taste in music, before and after her involvement with the Seekers, however, ran more toward old-time jazz and big-band blues -- left to her own devices, Durham showed herself more attuned to the work of Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, or Helen Morgan than Mary Travers or Joan Baez. She also knew how to write a good song, and what made the be...