iSound

Congress-Woman Malinda Jackson Parker was a loveable Liberian eccentric whose hard-to-find recordings conjure up a heavenly hash of Nina Simone and Lucia Pamela. The late "Ma Parker" of Marland County was a member of Liberia's House of Reps during the administration of President William V. S. Tubman. The slightly-daft yet elegant Parker sang, wrote and published her own songs, possibly two or three albums' worth. She accompanied herself on grand piano, which she pounded mercilessly as she revamped folk songs and addressed cultural concerns with a freewheeling half-sung, half-narrated storytelling style.

Tubman Goodtype Songs of Liberia by Congress-Woman Malinda Jackson Parker (ca. 1971) is a UK vanity pressing. It contains uninhibited odes to bush cow milk, the disease-spreading propensities of mosquitoes, and the blessings of palm trees. On the first of two versions of "Cousin Mosquito," she utters the word "cousin" 204 times within the song's...