In 1976, the revolutionary singer-songwriter LAURA NYRO returned from self-imposed exile. But her comeback confounded expectations, shifting away from the impassioned intimacies of her early albums to embrace more radical perspectives. Fifty years on, Nyro’s collaborators revisit her striking second act. “She was a hip American from the Bronx,” one friend and producer tells Rob Hughes. “But her soul was old.”

Black And Blue UMC/POLYDOR

Early Steps RHINO/WARNER BROS.

From The Bottom Of An Old Grandfather Clock (reissue, 2004) DEAD OCEANS

SKY ARTS

London Shepherd’s Bush Empire