CD: DALE ROBIN Sweet & Salty

DALE ROBIN

Sweet & Salty

 

Old Green Sweater – Boatman – Same Old World
– If He’s Gone – Waltz Across Texas – Where Did You Get That Hat – A
Taste of You – One, I Love – Delta Mama Blues – True Blues – Maple Sweet
– True Love Real – Movin ‘ Day – Workin’ Girl Blues
 
There’s nothing I like better than old-time
country music.  This CD is one of the best I’ve heard in awhile.  Dale
Robin is a songwriter much like Terry Smith, and her song “Old Green
Sweater” has the same story as Terry’s “Mama’s Quilt.”  Pure old-time
country through and through, much of it original written by the
recording artist Dale Robin.  She not only plays an extremely great
sounding Guild guitar, she is also a clawhammer banjo picker as well
as a lap dulcimer player.  Yes, perfect old-time country.  Add to this a
‘real’ country-folk voice with the just-right vibrato in the voice, and
you have the epitome of what early country music was all about.  The
sincerity, the honesty, the truth, the gift.  Add some incredibly good
pickers and you come up with a winning champion of the genre.  Don Barry
on bass; Jonathan Danforth on viola, fiddle, whistling, and bones; Jack
Radcliffe on piano; John Cote on drums; Don Wessels on chromatic
harmonica; Andy Cohen second guitar; Gail Wiegner vocal harmony, at
different and various locations in the CD.   My favorite song right off
the bat is “Waltz Across Texas” an Ernest Tubb song, that Ernest would
most assuredly have liked a lot.  The rest of my listening pleasure
likes include Dale’s excellent frailing or clawhammer banjo.  It’s
old-timey, easy to listen to, and fun.  Original songs are just that,
except perhaps for “If He’s Gone” which is a take on “St. James
Infirmary.”  The bass work of Don Barry is especially excellent on “A
Taste of You” along with some delicately placed whistling.  I also
enjoyed “Delta Mama Blues” which failed to mention Jack Radcliffe’s
piano on the liner notes.  “Maple Sweet” is au capella, and done
extremely well, just like it might have been done during the sugar-sap
gathering.  Sometimes, at least for me, miracles happen in music,
especially with those that have the ‘ear’ to play it. Even city folks
get the ‘ear’ sometimes, and they become ‘real’ folks.  Maybe that
happened to Dale Robin, but I’m impressed as well with her ability to
ease a little blues into her work, even a slight touch of jazz, but none
of this takes away from her work, it adds to it.  This is why the
project is labeled ‘Sweet & Salty.’  This is one of the last CD’s I
have to review for this incredibly well directed recording company
Wepecket Island Records.  I’m impressed, not only with the artists, but
with the way the company stays true to it’s course. The last song
“Workin’ Girl Blues” was the clincher, though I didn’t need that. 
Imagine an Eastern European Jewish girl yodeling her little heart out. 
OK, I’m sold, this is ‘real’ country, Patsy Montana would be proud of
this cow-girl! This one goes directly to the Rural Roots Music
Commission for their CD of the Year consideration.  Wepecket Records,
573 Rockdale Ave., New Bedford, MA 02740  info@wepecket.com  
 
Review by Bob Everhart www.ntcma.net
for Country Music News International

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