Skeeter's Dolly tribute still unique - 30 years later
Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 08/16/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This CD pairs two tribute albums recorded by Skeeter, one to Buddy Holly (recorded in 1967) and one to Dolly (recorded in 1972, except one track recorded in 1967).
The selection of Buddy Holly songs was fairly predictable. The least famous song here is I'm looking for someone to love. The other songs are world-famous, except perhaps Early is the morning. If you want to be really critical, you could say that Skeeter's versions lack the energy of Buddy's orginals, but I just think that Skeeter was aiming at a different market (country rather than rock'n'roll), and I find Skeeter's versions very enjoyable.
In any case, the real reason for buying this is the Dolly tribute. What makes this album extraordinary is that Dolly hadn't yet established herself as a solo singer in 1972. Skeeter, the established big name, was paying tribute to an up-and-coming singer yet to really hit big. Of course, there are plenty of people (like me) who think that Dolly's best years were the early seventies, and Skeeter was clearly on to something.
So, the selection of Dolly songs (unlike the Buddy songs) looks anything but obvious, especially as Dolly's most famous song up to that point (Coat of many colors) is not among the songs that Skeeter chose to record. The songs that are here include Fuel to the flame (a song from Dolly's Monument period, which Skeeter recorded in 1967 and had a top ten country hit with), Joshua (Dolly's first #1 record) and many other interesting songs from Dolly's early years, some of which Dolly recorded solo, but others were Dolly and Porter duets.
30 years later, this is still the only Dolly tribute album ever recorded (though Irish singer Margo O'Donnell came close with an album of mostly Dolly songs), and is therefore something of a Dolly collector's item. More recently, a various artists tribute (Just because I'm a woman) has been released, but Skeeter remains the only individual artist to record an entire album of Dolly's songs."
SKEETER SINGS DOLLY & HOLLY
Peter Durward Harris | 07/16/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"At last there is someone who realises that there is really good stuff out there that needs to be captured on CD. This is a CD compilation of two tribute albums done by the great Skeeter Davis; one to Dolly Parton and the other to Buddy Holly. There are 22 songs on this 'gem' and the outstanding ones are; the gospel tinged "Early In The Morning", the ever-sweet "True Love Ways", "It's So Easy", "It Dosen't Matter Anymore" (my favourite) and "Oh Boy"Favourites from the Dolly half are "Joshua", the engaging "Gypsy, Joe and Me", "Just The Way I Am", and a song way ahead of it's time in terms of lyrics, "Down From Dover". This CD is a far cry from all the others that just repeat songs that you've heard already. I highly recommend this CD to all and I am sure that after you've heard it that you too will recommend it to others."
Track Listings (22) - Disc #1