After a series of exceptionally æggende releases in the years around 1970, disappeared Bobbie Gentry without a trace from limelight, and the mythical diva from Mississippi has not appeared in public since 1981.
But now she’s back. In a way, at least.
The american band Mercury Rev has re-recorded Gentrys second album, ’The Delta Sweete’, with the help from a series of well-chosen singers, and the result is astonishing.
You have otherwise not be a cynic to write off Mercury Rev, after some formidable plates in the 1990s have lost the melody and the ability to write memorable songs.
But Gentry has the songs, and as organizers and interpreters fluctuates Mercury Rev themselves up for a masterful performance of ’Bobbie Gentry The Delta Sweete Revisited’, which replaces the legend swampy country and the stiff soul with magnificent guldalderpop.
Mercury Rev create brilliantly and døsigt roaring sound by means of swirling strings, flutes, Rhodes, fans and mellotron, while, among others, Norah Jones, Hope Sandoval and Susanne Sundfør retains the Gentrys driving sensuality.
finally puts Lucinda Williams its unmistakable quality stamp on the classic ’Ode to Billie Joe’, which was not originally on ’The Delta Sweete’, and the enigmatic signatursang is also a unique masterpiece between countrystjernens lips.
Gentry is back like never before. The same is Mercury Rev.
the Cover of Mercury Revs current ‘Bobbie Gentry The Delta Sweete Revisited’, which has a duration of 42 minutes.