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Elly Roberts reviews
Zonophone / EMI
- February 2007
- Rating: 10/10
Bumper collection from one-time 60s icon Roberta Lee Streeter, aka Bobbie Gentry,a Philosophy graduate from UCLA, and student of LA Conservatory of Music.
Briefly, she was a Las Vegas showgirl before cutting her first disc in 1967,by which time her stage name appeared, from the 1952 film title Ruby Gentry,starring Charlton Heston.
She emerged from the Nashville scene in the late 60s, becoming a true iconand one of the earliest examples of female artists to both write and produceher own material with her pop inspired country songs. This collection holds hitssingles Ode To Billie Joe, No.1 hit and signature tune Ill NeverFall In Love Again, All I Have To Do Is Dream along with less successfulRaindrops Keep Falling On My Head from flickButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Her stunning I Saw An Angel Die won her three Grammy awards.
On CD 2, two of the tracks are previously unreleased Windows of the Worldand Smoke.
Only one solo album Touch Em With Love (No.21 1969) hit the charts,and she faired less well with follow-up Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell fourmonths later in February 1970.
More than anything, this outstanding collection displays both her vocal rangeand expansive repertoire. She cleverly adapts her vocal style to the music,which takes in beautiful ballads such as I Saw An Angel Die, theFrench-inspired Sunday Best, jazzy husk-ridden Hurry, Tuesday Childto the sudden rush of Mississippi Delta, where she goes all out for ablast.
One of the few tracks to epitomise the time is Casket Vignette, completewith sweeping strings, horns etc, and is the only dated song. Marigolds AndTangerines is one of the most gorgeous songs you ever hear.
CD 2 opens with the biggie Ill Never Fall In Love Again stillsounding a great as ever. Peaceful is dripping with 60s innocence,boosted by more sweeping strings, flutes and top class production, whereasLouisiana Man is a foot-tapping countrified classic.
Arguably, one of her strongest songs ever, is the steady plodding ofGreyhound Goin Somewhere with some effective, but minimalist, harmonica.
Bright and breezy, Show Off is a cool up-tempo ditty with Gentrysvoice on top form, with just a dash of huskiness combined with some Elephant-likebrass. Rainmaker is probably a return to her roots, nice slices ofbanjo, piano, and violin.
Last two La Siepe and La Citta E Grande are sung with equalconfidence in Spanish.
Above all, Gentry retained her country sensibilities, but successfully managedto give credible pop accessibility. Sadly, Gentry has now retired from themusic industry.
Simultaneous downloads only are available from February 19 of:Ode To Billy Joe, Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell, Local Gentry, The DeltaSweete, Touch Em With Love, Fancy and Partchwork.
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.