OR   Search for Artist/Title    Advanced Search
 
you are not logged in...  [login] 
All Reviews    Edit This Review     
Review: 'Martell, Linda'
'Color Me Country'   

-  Label: 'Sun Records/Org Music/Bandcamp'
-  Genre: 'Alt/Country' -  Release Date: '18.6.22.'

Our Rating:
This is a long overdue re-issue of Linda Martell's classic LP Color Me Country that originally came out in 1970 on Sun Records, it was also the year in which she was the first black artist to appear at The Grand Ole Opry in what at the time was a ground-breaking performance.

The album opens with Bad Case Of The Blues a proper Grand Ole Opry style country heartbreaker complete with yodeling section in a Jimmie Rodgers style only of course with female vocals as the pedal steel drives this along.

San Francisco Is A Lonely Town has a languorous downbeat tear stained feel to it, as Linda's vocals are full of the regret at seeing her man go off with another woman, as it's set in San Francisco it could of course be another man he ran off with, as the pedal steel goes straight to the heart of the matter, just how blue she feels as she sits alone on the greyhound bus home.

The Wedding Cake sounds like it should be heard back to back with the Coward Of The County, the either mandolin of banjo fills on this are magical as of course love has gone completely wrong again, this time on the couples wedding day.

Tender Leaves Of Love is a tender country ballad with some chiming acoustic guitar and mournful fiddle as those Tender Leaves Of Love blow across your speakers.

I Almost Called Your Name has that pedal steel doing all sorts of tricks to accentuate Linda's crystal-clear vocals.

Color Him Father was her first big hit on a song that has a sound that's less straight ahead old time country, but only just, as this tale of her hard working father unfolds as a country folk song of hope and appreciation for the man who her mother married after losing her husband in the war.

There Never Was A Time fells like an early Dolly Parton classic as the story at the centre of the song of the hard scrabble life of never having enough to go around no matter how hard you try.

You're Crying, Boy Crying is a full-on hoedown dedicated to the boy she's left and he's just crying because she's gone, like a big ole baby, the fiddles really do a lot of the work to accentuate the lyrics and somehow it sounds like it should accompany a chase scene in the Dukes Of Hazzard.

Old Letter Song is about a cliched old country song and lists all the things that make up classic country heartbreakers, while of course sounding like exactly the thing she may be having a pop at.

Then I'll Be Over You is a slow plangent song of sadness and regret and how hard it is to get over you now that your gone.

The album closes with Before The Teardrop Falls tells another woman's man that she'll happily take her place the very day she gets rid of him, this is rather upbeat and as with the rest of the album the production and musicianship are wonderful no matter how old timey the music is.

Find out more at https://orgmusic.com/blogs/news/linda-martell-color-me-country-rsd-june-drop https://lindamartell.bandcamp.com/album/color-me-country-sun-records-70th-remastered-2022




  author: simonovitch

[Show all reviews for this Artist]

READERS COMMENTS    10 comments still available (max 10)    [Click here to add your own comments]

There are currently no comments...
----------