Danny O'Keefe

Half-consciously listening to the radio one day, I sat up and paid attention when this
fantastic song came on. It rocked, all right, but it had a mellow country feel, too, and a
great singer whose voice was both countryish and down home. It seemed like what a
meeting of rock and country really ought to be, yet it didn't even have a steel guitar. I'd
never heard the song before, nor the singer, and I was ready to call the station a... More >

Though he thinks too much about smog and winos, O'Keefe sings the blues like a good old boy and takes his "mama" with him when he leaves town--in short, handles standard new-troubadourisms with some originality. And every once in a while he writes a potential standard like "Sweet Rollin'" (femme fatale) or "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues" (a rounder's tragedy). But producer Ahmet Ertegun stifles "Saturday Morning" in Shoals soul, arranges "Steel Guitar" sans steel guitar, and indulges all of his boy's most misguided pretensions. (Grade: B-)