Bonnie Dobson - Bonnie Dobson (2006)

Bonnie Dobson did not make the transition from folk to rock well, as this 1969 album attests. With its pop trimmings and orchestration, the impression is that RCA was trying to put Dobson into the pop market, rather than the rock or even folk-rock one. The arrangements aren't awful, but they aren't inspired either, and don't suit the songs well. It's as if someone was trying to make her over into a folk Bobbie Gentry. And the material isn't the greatest either. Getting an opportunity to do an electric version of her own "Morning Dew" would seem to have been the greatest opportunity that the author of the song could have, yet it's no more than adequate, and in any case had been beaten to the punch through prior versions by Tim Rose, the Grateful Dead, the Jeff Beck Group, Lulu, and others. Same thing with her covers of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talking" and Dino Valenti's "Let's Get Together": would have been a great idea in early 1967, but was running behind the pack a couple of years later. (At least her cover of Jackson Frank's "You Never Me" was a more obscure, daring choice.) Five of the 12 songs are her own compositions, but with the exception of "Morning Dew" they're inoffensively forgettable, easygoing pop-folk-rock. A sitar (or possibly an electric sitar) pops up a couple of times, but it sounds more trendy than far-out. As an early-1960s folk singer, Dobson made notable if little-known contributions to the folk scene, but this album indicates that she wasn't able to either maximize her potential or capitalize on her assets in a timely fashion.