Expansion of Bare and Silverstein's first collaboration
The lengthy artistic collaboration between country singer Bobby Bare and author/poet/cartoonist/songwriter Shel Silverstein began in earnest with this 1973 LP. At the time, Bare had been regularly charting country hits for fifteen years, and Silverstein had found great success as a songwriter with the Irish Rovers (1968's "The Unicorn") Johnny Cash (1969's "A Boy Named Sue"), Loretta Lynn (1971's "One's on the Way"), and Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show (1972's "Sylvia's Mother"). Bare himself covered "Sylvia's Mothers" and rode it to #12 on the country chart and subsequently invited Silverstein to write him a theme album. Bare self produced the album in the Spring of 1973.
Silverstein's witty, humorous and ultimately affectionate songs found a terrific interpreter in Bare. As a singer who could be arch and coy at the same time, Bare explored both the warmth and tongue-in-cheek nature of Silverstein's works. Recorded in-studio in front of a small group of family and friends, Bare's spoken word introductions and the audience's laughter provides continuity between tall tales of Paul Bunyan, voodoo, magic, swamps, bikers and robots. The album's hits include the tale of a New Orleans voodoo queen, "Marie Lavaux," a duet with Bare's then five-year old son Bobby Jr., "Daddy What If," and a bluesy tune of brawling, "The Winner."
RCA Legacy's reissue adds a second disc that includes Bare's earlier version of "Sylvia's Mother," which isn't nearly as bombastic as the Silverstein-produced version by Dr. Hook, and a sampling from the next eight years of Bare/Silverstein collaborations on RCA and Columbia. Highlights include the children's chorus accompanying "Singin' in the Kitchen," the ironic prophesy of "Brian Hennessey," and the touchingly sad, "This Guitar Is For Sale." There are bank robberies, marriages and paroles gone awry, a eulogy, and a male chauvinist's comeuppance among songs drawn from seven different Bare albums of the '70s and '80s.
Bare's in great form throughout, spinning yarns with a smile and a hint that there's some truth to be found amid the fanciful stories. Silverstein found other singers to connect with his material, but never anyone who connected so fully or for so long as Bare. The double CD set is housed in a tri-fold digipack with a 24-page booklet that includes the original liner and song notes, a new essay by Rich Kienzle and over a dozen photos. [©2007 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]Read full review
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