Bonnie Dobson & Her Boys
Album: Take Me for A Walk In The Morning Dew
Label: Hornbeam
Tracks: 15
Website: http://www.hornbeamrecordings.com

Canada-born Bonnie rose to prominence as a singer and songwriter in the 1960s, moving to England in 1969 to get married; following the breakup of her marriage, she quit professional singing at the end of the 80s for a career in academia. She made a rare appearance, at fan Jarvis Cocker's request, at his Meltdown event back in 2007, but forsook music entirely until she was "coaxed out of retirement" by the Hornbeam Records team, prior to getting to perform her most famous song at the Bert Jansch tribute concert (with Robert Plant and Bernard Butler) last December.

Last summer, she put together a band for live touring as well as recording purposes, consisting of Ben Phillipson (guitar and dulcimer), Ben Paley (fiddle), Jonny Bridgwood (double bass) and Dave Morgan (drums), with Sean Read (trumpet, percussion), Felix Holt (harmonica), Ruth Tidmarsh (vocal) and B.J. Cole (pedal steel, dobro) also helping out. But here's a thing - it's obvious right from the get-go that Bonnie's fantastic voice has emerged entirely intact from those years of non-singing, every bit as strong as ever, and her "boys" provide exactly the right kind of presence that complements her voice and unique delivery, through a characteristic folk-rock backing that both keeps the faith of the era which her writing encompasses and also retains a timeless yet contemporary relevance.

Her comeback album's very title, Take Me For A Walk In The Morning Dew, naturally references her best-known song (which Tim Rose notoriously misappropriated - according to Robin Denselow's authoritative liner note, the story goes that he used Fred Neil's slightly changed version of the opening line and was thereby allowed to claim co-authorship and a percentage of the royalties…). Incredibly, it was Bonnie's first composition, written in 1961 after watching the nuclear horror film On The Beach, and has become a much-recorded number in the worlds of pop, rock and folk alike.

Bonnie delivers a splendid, poignantly passionate new recording of this iconic song on this comeback album, alongside nine further examples of her songwriting (old and new). These exhibit a remarkable, if bewildering diversity, from the "psychotic", psychedelia-tinged Winter's Going to the wistful Rainy Windows and the ominous Who Are These Men? (Bonnie's powerful response to a recent news item); from the wanderlust of Southern Bound and the "been there, done that" "cross moments" of I Got Stung and Mean And Evil to the dreamy trumpet-bedecked fantasy-whirl of Come On Dancing and the almost-throwaway Living On Plastic; with the almost unbearably tender JB's Song closing proceedings.

As if these examples were not enough, Bonnie mixes in a handful of her own inimitable treatments of traditional songs, ranging from a full-blown band setting of the ballad Peter Amberley to a beauteous a cappella rendition of Dink's Song, a remarkably fiery account of the bluesy Born In The Country and even a sparky French-Canadian voyageurs' song V'la L'Bon Vent. She also unleashes the force of her band on a full-steam-ahead dash through Sandy Boys that enjoys the same sense of collaborative camaraderie that characterises the musicians' role when providing the instrumental support for her soaring voice. Yeah, what a comeback! The impact is quite literally stunning. And the package and presentation is also impeccable, with all the standards of the Hornbeam house observed (attractive artwork and design, great liner essays and individual track credits).

David Kidman