Buried on side one of At Last, Reilly & Maloney’s 1976 debut album, “Wildman” is a heartbreaking journey through the subtle intrusion of newfound love. It’s the story of a man relentlessly seeking the admiration of a lady, beaten and bruised by the past, guided by the warm and echoey vocals of Ginny Reilly. Reilly and Maloney joined forces in San Francisco in 1968 to compose and perform their own brand of folk music — an amalgamation that can be described as woodsy and au courant California in demeanor.

Billed solely as a Ginny Reilly song, “Wildman” was rescued from obscurity in 2006 by a nascent Numero Group, via the label’s stellar anthology of far-out female folk music: Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies From The Canyon. Preceded by twelve equally impressive folk gems, this collection serves as the best way to embrace the song — a testament to the compilation’s overall aesthetic curation.

Ginny Reilly :: Wildman