Bobbie Gentry

I stumbled on this show on BBC Four and was amazed that I had not seen it before. Its full broadcast quality in glorious PAL colour from 1968. I am not a fan of country music per se, but found this to be a guilty pleasure. However sometimes the music seems to be the same arrangement of the same kind of song. The thinking is "if it aint broke, dont fix it" but that strummed seventh note on the guitar motif on a lot of the songs gets annoying after a while. Another criticism is that she seems to be miming a lot to the original record in the background, but a lot of shows were like that back then. Its a shame that we cant see all 18 shows, but the five that survive more than make up for it. One last thing, she carries an acoustic guitar around with her, but doesnt seem to actually play it? But then as a guitarist myself that might be a bit of nit picking. Recommended and then some.

I had seen clips off this show, but never a full edition until they were repeated on BBC4 in the UK tonight (Nov 3rd 2023) and what a treat! Bobbie sharing each episode with a carefully chosen guest - in these particular shows - Donovan, The Hollies, Jerry Reed, Long John Baldry, Sue and Sonny (of The Brotherhood of Man) The 1968 editions looked and sounded fabulous in their 625 line pal colour glory with excellent music production. It's such a shame that Thirteen out of the 18 of the shows have been wiped by the BBC as they are a great time capsule of a exciting time in music and such a pity the editions with Elton John, Glen Campbell and The Marmalade are currently lost.