''Breaking Silence'' is an album by singer-songwriter

Janis Ian Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink; April 7, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter who was most commercially successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Her signature songs are the 1966/67 hit "Society's Child, Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" an ...

, released in 1992 on Morgan Creek Records in the

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and

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and on Columbia in Canada and the

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History

Although Ian was outed as a lesbian in 1976 by the ''

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'', her sexuality was largely ignored until the release of ''Breaking Silence'' when Ian herself brought it to the forefront because of her concern with suicide rates among gay and lesbian teenagers. In the preceding decade, Ian met Pat Snyder and, after significant financial and health setbacks, they purchased a house together by 1991. They took on a second mortgage to fund the album, as major record labels were no longer interested in Ian's work. "I thought I was only going to get one more chance to record, so I wanted to make it count", Ian said. It was her first album in seven years. The album contains political songs such as "His Hands" (about spousal abuse) and "Tattoo" (about

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). The title track, "Breaking Silence", is about incest. It also includes Ian's version of "Some People's Lives", previously recorded as the title track of

Bette Midler Bette Midler ( ;''Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and author. Throughout her five-decade career Midler has received List of awards and nominations received by Bette Midler, numero ...

's 1990 album. The album was nominated for a

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, making it Ian's seventh nomination.

Track listing

Personnel

*Janis Ian – acoustic and electric guitar, piano, vocals *Jim Brock – drums, percussion *Jim Hoke –

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*Chad Watson –

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* Dann Huff – electric guitar

Production

*Jeff Balding – producer, lead engineer, mix engineer *Doug Sax – mastering *Lisa Powers – photography *Jerry Joyner – design *Virginia Team – art direction

Assistants

*Steve Bishir – assistant engineer *Patrick Kelly – assistant engineer, overdubs *Greg Parker – assistant engineer *John David Parker – assistant engineer *Christopher Rich – assistant engineer *Toby Seay – assistant engineer *Carry Summers – assistant engineer, overdubs

References

External links

* {{Authority control Janis Ian albums 1993 albums