in 1999 she released her third album, "hydrangea", to which guests peter holsapple, vicki peterson and susan cowsill added their musical contributions, as did long-time cohorts dave schramm and james macmillan. the key songs on the album are taken from her family's history. "never be afraid" is based on a phrase of her aunt katia's in 1938 when the family was emigrating to the us; "a snowy street" is based on a journal entry of her doctor grandfather in post-revolutionary russia; "eddy went to spain" is about an uncle who fought in the abraham lincoln brigade for the republican side in the spanish civil war, and "good doctor" was based on a journal of elena, a fourteen-year-old tuberculosis patient of her great grandfather's, who fell in love with her physician.