It wasn’t that long ago that I reviewed the first solo album
\nfrom the Fly-Rite Boys, who normally perform with Robert “Big
\nSandy” Williams. Now, fresh on the heels of the Fly-Rite Boys’s
\neffort comes the first solo disc from Big Sandy himself,
\nDedicated To You<\/i>.<\/p>\n
While it is noble that some artists have made it their lives to
\npreserve the sound and feel of music form the early days of rock
\nand roll, this disc does prove that too much of a good thing can be
\nbad.<\/p>\n
Big Sandy employs the assistance of legendary ’50s doo-wop
\nartists The Calvanes and pianists Dewey Terry (who also contributes
\na guitar solo and vocal), Skip Edwards and Carl Sonny Leyland to
\nhelp flesh out the sound of the band – and their influence is
\nclearly felt throughout the disc. If you are a Baby Boomer (or,
\nlike me, you’re the child of one and have grown up listening to the
\noldies station with them), you might often find yourself doing a
\ndouble-take when listening to Big Sandy. With more than a touch of
\nElvis Presley in his voice, you might find it difficult to believe
\nyou’re listening to a product from 1998, and not 1955.<\/p>\n
And there’s no doubting that Big Sandy and his backing group
\ntackle this collection of 15 covers of older doo-wop songs (and one
\noriginal snuck in) with the resolve of bringing joy to those who
\nlisten to it. Songs like “Lonely Guy,” “Pretty Girls Everywhere”
\nand “I’m Leavin’ It All Up To You” (featuring a vocal from Dewey
\nTerry, who sang on the original version as well) all send chills of
\npleasure down the listener’s spine.<\/p>\n
What Big Sandy doesn’t recognize on
\nDedicated To You<\/i> is that this style of music is tolerable
\nfor a limited amount of time. When you start grabbing songs like
\n“Death Of An Angel,” the true-to-form of the original really grates
\non you. The crying in the background almost made me think I was
\nlistening to Johnnie Ray (the original was done by Donald Woods). I
\ndon’t remember any of the teen-death songs of that era actually
\nfeaturing weeping in the background. (For that matter, I haven’t
\nheard any song featuring crying that I’ve liked – ever.)<\/p>\n
And while many of the selections featured here are songs that
\nBig Sandy grew up listening to, odds are that even some Baby
\nBoomers might have a difficult time recognizing some of these songs
\nfrom the days of their youth. (I have yet to test this disc on my
\nfather, who listened to the oldies so much that he got me
\ninterested in them. My dad likes to say that I know the oldies and
\nthe artists better than he does.)<\/p>\n
\nDedicated To You<\/i> is still a fun album to listen to, but it’s
\nnot one that’s easily dealt with in one sitting. Had Big Sandy
\nchosen a few different cuts than almost all obscure numbers, this
\nmight have been a more approachable disc. Still, there’s room for a
\nlot of smiles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7561],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-39356","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-big-sandy","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39356"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}