Bobbie Gentry - The Delta Sweete (Expanded Edition)

The Delta Sweete features original album's stereo mix, remastered from the original source tapes as well as ten bonus tracks, including a previously unreleased original demo of ‘The Way I Do’ and an instrumental version of ‘Okolona River Bottom Band', with the great Shorty Rogers on bass trumpet. This is the first time the album has been pressed on vinyl since 1972.

Not even six full months had passed since the release of Gentry’s August 1967 Capitol Records debut Ode To Billie Joe, which followed its title track to No. 1 in the US, when The Delta Sweete emerged the following February. The atmospheric strings were again orchestrated by Jimmie Haskell, whose arrangement on ‘Ode to Billie Joe’ won him a Grammy Award. James Burton, the great guitarist who would soon become a key ingredient of Elvis Presley’s TCB Band, was featured alongside the ever-in-demand Hal Blaine on drums.

Uniquely, the resulting sound reached well beyond country and into soul, chamber-pop and psychedelia. Originals such as ‘Jessye’ Lisabeth’ and ‘Mornin’ Glory’ sat happily next to covers of Mose Allison’s ‘Parchman Farm’ and Willie Dixon’s ‘Big Boss Man’ and a session outtake of his ‘The Seventh Son’.

Also among the bonus tracks is Gentry’s laid-back demo of Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse’s ‘Feelin’ Good’, and an alternate version of her own ‘Mississippi Delta’ which was originally intended to close the LP’s second side.

Heavyweight double vinyl pressed by Capitol Records in 2020. Includes new sleeve notes, with rare unpublished photos. Includes download card.