Customer Reviews

New Harvest...First Gathering

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To coincide with Dolly Parton's 2007 European Tour SonyBMG (UK) release a series of three 2on1s (twofers). These feature some of the most sought after albums recorded during her days signed to RCA Records. Each album is beautifully remastered from the original American tapes. If you love the Country star you will adore these CDs....

The release, in August 1976, of "All I Can Do" was significant as it was Dolly's last studio album produced by her longtime mentor, Porter Wagoner. This Grammy nominated album, included the bouncy single Hey, Lucky Lady and Dolly's heartfelt rendition of Emmylou Harris's Boulder to Birmingham. Both the title song and album went on to reach #3 on the Country charts.

The next step was to begin recording, during the autumn 1976, her first self-produced album, poignantly named New Harvest...First Gathering. These sessions notably introduced her to the talents of masterful keyboardist, arranger and producer, Gregg Perry and were her first to be done, in part, outside of Nashville. The album, released in February 1977, was a #1 Country smash. The gospel-tinged lead single Light of the Clear Blue Morning also reached #11. New Harvest...First Gathering may only have made a marginal dent on the Pop charts but it did win Dolly an American Music Award for `Best Country Album' in 1978. It also sparked a special friendship and working relationship with Gregg Perry. The ultimate reward for the songstress is this album remains her most coveted by fans!

Tracklisting:-
1. All I Can Do
2. Fire That Keeps You Warm
3. When The Sun Goes Down Tomorrow
4. I'm A Drifter
5. Falling Out Of Love With Me
6. Shattered Image
7. Boulder To Birmingham
8. Preacher Tom
9. Life's Like Poetry
10. Hey, Lucky Lady
11. Light Of A Clear Blue Morning
12. Applejack
13. My Love (My Girl)
14. Holdin' On To You
15. You Are
16. How Does It Feel
17. Where Beauty Lives In Memory
18. Higher And Higher
19. Getting In My Way
20. There

Finally Dolly's back catalog is slowly getting re-issued on CD. The first of these 2fer's includes Dolly's 1976 and 1977 RCA albums. "All I Can Do" from 1976 was the first of her albums where she was beginning to break away from Porter Wagoner. The stand out tracks include the title track, "I'm A Drifter", "Shattered Image" and Emmylou Harris' "Boulder To Birmingham". 1977's "New Harvest...First Gathering" is one of Dolly's best. The album opens and closes with two songs that both begin very quietly and build to a rousing finish. The opener "Light Of A Clear Blue Morning" has been redone by Dolly twice since, but the original is the best performance of the song. The closing song is her haunting gospel number "There" one of Dolly's best songs. Also included is her tale of childhood banjo picker, "Applejack", her take on the Motown classic "My Girl" here retitled "My Love", She also covers the Jackie Wilson classic "Higher and Higher". The other two stand out tracks are "You Are" and the sad story of delusion, "Where Beauty Lives In Memory".
These have been a long time coming. Thanks to Stephen Munns for spearheading this project.

I am so glad that these albums have been remastered and rereleased! I have been looking for a copy of New Harvert...First Gathering for years! And the album All I can do is also one of my favorites also! I love the song Preacher Tom from All I can do...it reminds me of going to the old country churches that I was raised in. These are two of Dollys best! Don't delay, order these cd's while they are still available. These albums are from Dolly's early RCA days and you will really enjoy them!

finally some of dolly's older stuff is being released on cd!!! to bad the uk had to do it first tho! but at least now we can get these albums on cd for the first time ever!!! you wont be disappointed with these at all! these were two of dollys best albums i think!! I love her older stuff as well as her newer stuff such as "Those were the days" cd. and the price of these double cds are really great!!!! two for the price of one!!!!!

The first half of the album is from Dolly's 1976 LP album "All I Can Do". The title song for the first half reached #3 on the U.S. Country charts. Even though the second half from "New Harvest...First Gathering" LP album are more moving, "All I Can Do" is almost equally good with a more fun feel to it. When this half was originally released separate it was more successful then the second half of songs (I have no idea how) but like I said it's almost equally good, it's just that the songs from "New Harvest...First Gathering" were written better, they also have meaning and more feeling in them. The highlights on the first half are "All I Can Do", "I'm A Drifter", "Falling Out Of Love With Me", the original version of "Shattered Image" which would later be redone on her moving bluegrass album "Halos & Horns". Another highlighted song is "Boulder To Birmingham" which was originally written & sung by Emmylou Harris. The last standout on this half is "Preacher Tom".

The second half of the album is from Dolly's 1977 LP album, "New Harvest...First Gathering". This was Dolly's first album that she produced herself, also it was her first album that was recorded out of Nashville. This half has some of most saddest and most touching songs, like the original version to the uplifting "Light Of A Clear Blue Morning", one of Dolly's fan's favorites "Applejack", the beautiful, moving & uplifting "You Are", a very fun "How Does It Feel", the most saddest song on this half "Where Beauty Lives In Memory" and the big final with "There" which is so moving, it will make you cry. This cd is so worth it, really for this half of "New Harvest...First Gathering". This is probarly one Dolly's best & underrated albums from the 1970s.

Both of these albums include their original artwork from the LPs inside the CD booklet, it also haves linernotes, but no lyrics.

These two albums reveal hints of Dolly's modernized country, as she ventured toward a pop sound. The combination works, making these two albums my absolute favorites. The spiritual "There" off of New Harvest, is worth the purchase in itself.

Historically, it makes perfect sense to release these two albums back-to-back on the one C.D. "All I Can Do" was the last album Dolly recorded with long-time duet partner Porter Wagoner as producer; "New Harvest . . ." being her first outing without his involvement. On the former, Dolly's constraint is almost palpable; holding back in more familiar territory and at the same time straining at the leash - rocking out without actually taking flight. In one of country music's most oft-related pieces of folklore, at the time of their split Dolly was a relatively young, multi-talented singer/songwriter, with her sights set firmly on global fame and fortune, and whose star was definitely on the rise. On the other hand, Porter was middle-aged, his career had long since peaked, and was now on the wane. Country music's take on "A Star is Born".

"All I Can Do" is a fine album, with stand out tracks including the title song; "Shattered Image", which Dolly revived on her critically acclaimed "Halos and Horns" outing; a slowed down, soulful rendition of the Emmylou Harris classic, "Boulder to Birmingham"; and the gospel inflected "Preacher Tom", which show-cases Dolly's very considerable more traditional, storytelling talent. However, the album never quite reaches the transcendent heights of its successor, the resplendent "New Harvest . . . First Gathering". From the first few celebratory lines of the opening track, the Dolly classic "Light of a Clear Blue Morning", the listener is indeed put on notice that something "new" is happening here. Miss Dolly has truly "won her freedom" and is eagerly sailing towards the sky. No point in selecting standout tracks here; with only one exception all the songs soar in the spirit of the high-flying eagle. The at times overly mawkish remake of The Temptation's soul classic "My Girl" (renamed "My Love" here) is the only misstep in an otherwise triumphant new beginning for Miss Parton. Furthermore, by way of contrast, her up-tempo, 'grassed-up version of the Jackie Wilson soul classic "Higher and Higher" succeeds, ticking all the right boxes perfectly. This album truly constitutes a new harvest, and what a bumper crop it delivers. And as Dolly sings "I'll Take You There" on the final track, her rousing promise has been more than adequately met. This album is Dolly at her best - highly recommended.

This is excellent and combines Dolly's talent in country, gospel as well as her ability to do some catchy pop numbers. It has become one of my favourites. I discovered songs like 'There,' 'Where beauty lives in memory' and a cute one called 'Lucky Lady.' I rediscovered great songs such as 'I'm a drifter,' 'Light of a clear blue morning.' For Dolly fans, it is a must. If you are not specially a fan, you won't regret it.

Length:: 2:10 Mins

To coincide with Dolly's European tour of 2007, there were several CD releases including yet another best of compilation and three twofers (of which this is one) featuring six albums, five of which had never been released on CD while the other had only briefly been available in the early days of CD. Three of Dolly's older albums were also released with bonus tracks although only the bonus tracks were new to CD, the main albums having already been made available on earlier releases. This particular CD features two wonderful albums although they weren't among those that I most wanted to get on CD. I'd certainly have put Love is like a butterfly, Touch your woman, Bargain store and Bubbling over ahead of them. Still, if enough people buy this and the other available Dolly albums, maybe I'll get my preferred choices one day.

The first of the two albums here was also the last Dolly solo album in which Porter Wagoner was involved. Porter was once a hugely successful country singer in his own right, with a long string of country hits in the fifties and sixties (and a few later). Porter was the first singer to have success with Green green grass of home (it was a top five country hit for him), but just as that song is now associated with Tom Jones, so Porter is mostly remembered as the man who took Dolly from obscurity to stardom. On this 1976 album, he is credited as co-producer with Dolly. Of the songs, the title track was a top three American country hit with the only other American single, Hey lucky lady, scraping into the country top twenty. In Britain, Shattered image was released as a single and received plenty of airplay but didn't chart. The song received a new lease of life when Dolly re-recorded it for a more recent album, Halos and horns, with a different arrangement.

Life's like poetry (a cover of a Merle Haggard song) first appeared on Merle's album Keep movin' on. That album (as I said in my review of the twofer that featured it) has much of interest to Dolly fans including one song (Kentucky gambler) written by Dolly and another song (Always wanting you) written by Merle about Dolly. Another song here, Boulder to Birmingham (a cover of an Emmylou song) might have been Dolly's way of returning a compliment, Emmylou having covered Coat of many colors the year before. The two were great friends and one song (To Daddy) that Dolly wrote for this album didn't make the final cut. Emmylou recorded the song even before the album was released and Dolly dropped her own version thinking that Emmylou's version was better. Emmylou's version eventually appeared on her 1978 album, Quarter moon in a ten cent town, whence it was released as a single and became a top three country hit. Dolly eventually re-recorded the song for a live album, Heartsongs, and had a top twenty country hit with that version. Dolly's original 1976 version then became available on a compilation, I will always love you - the essential Dolly Parton volume one, that featured another rarity, a Dolly solo version of Real love, her 1985 country chart topping duet with Kenny Rogers. Having heard Dolly's 1976 version of To Daddy, I can say that it is brilliant and should never have been dropped from All I can do. It's a pity that the opportunity was not taken to include it as a bonus track here.

The remaining tracks on All I can do are all Dolly originals of a very high quality, these being The fire that keeps you warm (previously recorded as a Porter and Dolly duet), When the sun goes down tomorrow, I'm a drifter, Falling out of love with me (more recently recorded by Pinmonkey with Dolly) and Preacher Tom (which I seem to remember reading was the track that replaced To Daddy). So while this album comes behind the other four that I mentioned at the top of my review, it's not far behind them and I'm very pleased to have it on CD.

I'm also pleased to have New Harvest first gathering on CD, though it was further down my list of priorities. Following the split with Porter, Dolly co-produced the album with Gregg Perry. With this album, Dolly attempted but failed to get a slice of the pop action; the album was still essentially country but caused some disquiet among country fans at the time. As we all know, time works in mysterious ways and it now seems that a lot of Dolly fans wanted this album more than any other to be made available on CD. (Having seen how internet surveys are sometimes conducted, I do wonder about the reliability of those findings.)

The one solidly country track here is Applejack, which ought to have been released as a single but wasn't because Dolly was trying to establish her credentials as a pop singer. (So why was it included on the album? As a token to country fans?) The big single here was Light of a clear blue morning (which has been covered by Glen Campbell among others), which didn't quite make the country top ten. It's interesting to note that this song appears less frequently on Dolly compilations than Applejack. The album includes covers of Higher and higher (Jackie Wilson's song that also provided Rita Coolidge with a pop hit) and My love (a gender adaptation of the Temptations classic, My girl). The remaining songs, all original, include a nice mix of up-tempo songs and ballads, two of the latter (You are, Where beauty lives in memory) being particularly noteworthy.

So here are two great Dolly albums. Buy them to encourage further releases.