THE GIRL FROM CHICKASAW COUNTY

With the release of the 2-CD retrospective The Girl From Chickasaw County I am taking a look back at the career of Bobbie Gentry and this new set.

Bobbie Gentry was born Roberta Lee Streeter on 27th July 1942 on a small farm just outside Woodland in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. She grew up on her grandparents farm and in a 1973 interview she recalled that her grandmother noticed how much she liked music. She went on to say, "When I was still very young, I used to sit and listen to jazz music and blues music from New Orleans on an old battery-powered radio. Then I'd go over to the piano and try to pick out the tunes."

She lived with her father in Greenwood, Mississippi for a few years, during which time she learned to play the guitar and banjo. When she was 13 she moved to Palm Springs to live with her mother. It was around this time she changed her name after watching the film Ruby Gentry. In the film Ruby was a poor but beautiful girl from the backwoods who ended up marrying the town tycoon. She recalled, "I was intrigued with that movie and started using that name. I still like it."

In 1960 she graduated from high school and moved to Los Angeles where she studied philosophy at UCLA before moving to the Conservatory of Music, taking classes in music theory, composition  and arranging.

To earn a living she modeled swimsuits and started performing at nightclubs in the Los Angeles area. It was there that she met Jody Reynolds who she gigged with occasionally. This led to her singing two duets with Reynolds, Stranger In The Mirror and Requiem For Love, issued as a single in 1966 it failed to create much interest.

All this time Gentry was writing her own songs and she recorded demos of twelve of her own compositions that would eventually become the basis for her first album. Her ambition was to write songs for other people. She had recorded a song called Ode To Billie Joe which she took to Capitol Records. She felt it was cheaper than hiring a professional. However, it was another of her compositions, Mississippi Delta, that gained her a recording contract.

Jimmie Haskell overdubbed a string arrangement onto Gentry's demo of Ode To Billie Joe and when Capitol Records heard it they had no doubts about it being the A-Side. Released on 10 July 1967 it hit the top of the Billboard Pop Singles Chart five weeks later and would also appear on the Adult Contemporary, Hot R&B and Hot Country Songs charts. In the UK it peaked at #13.

Ode To Billie Joe is one of my favourite songs from the 1960s and to cover the songs background and history would require an article of its own (maybe a future blog article). However, it is worth giving a brief history of the track here. Performed as a first-person narrative it tells the story of a rural Mississippi family's reaction to the news of the suicide of Billie Joe McAllister. He was a local boy connected to the daughter (the narrator of the song). The song leaves the listener unsure of what really happened and what was actually thrown from the Tallahatchie Bridge. There has been much debate over the years but Gentry always said it wasn't important. The mystery is something that can never be resolved.

Her debut album, taking its title from the hit single, was a combination of blues, folk and jazz that continued her recollections of her homeland. The album knocked The Beatles Sgt Pepper album off the top spot and would go on to win three Grammy Awards ('Best New Artist', 'Best Female Pop Vocal' and 'Best Contemporary Song'). One reviewer wrote, "Bobbie Gentry is the most exciting thing to happen to popular music since the Beatles."

In 1968 Gentry released two more solo albums, The Delta Sweete and Local Gentry. The former was a concept album about her Mississippi Delta roots while the latter showed that her songwriting skills remained at a high.

The same year Gentry recorded an album with country superstar Glen Campbell. Three hit singles and a gold award proved how successful the partnership was. Unfortunately a second planned album never materialised. 

She was still writing her own songs and told Mid-South magazine, "I don't really have a great time doing it, but I have a need to write. I am driven to being industrious, and the finished product is well worth the effort."

In 1968 BBC 2 invited her to host her own show and she became the first female songwriter to front her own show on the channel. There were six 30-minute shows each year for three years - 1968, 1969 and 1970. 

Gentry's fourth solo album, released in 1969, found her moving away from her own compositions, the album only had two self-penned numbers, and choosing cover versions in an attempt to promote her as a blue-eyed soul singer. Touch 'Em With Love was recorded in Nashville and produced by Kelso Herston. Critically acclaimed at the time it became her most successful album in the UK no doubt helped by her version of I'll Never Fall In Love Again which, when released as a single, reached number one.

Fancy, her fifth solo release, issued in May 1970, was another album of mainly covers centered around the country-soul theme. The title track is one of her most accomplished story-songs - born poor white trash, groomed as a hooker by her mother and ends up in an elegant Georgia mansion. She spoke about the track in a 1974 interview with After Dark magazine, "Fancy is my strongest statement for women's lib, if you really listen to it." The song became her most successful single since Ode To Billie Joe and gained her a Grammy for 'Best Female Pop Vocal'.

May 1971 saw the release of what would become her last album, Patchwork. A diverse collection of short stories in song held together by a series of interludes. Covering pop, soul, folk, blues and gospel it was Gentry's first album to feature all her own self-written songs.

Following the release of her final album in 1971, Gentry reinvented herself as a live performer with lavish stage shows in many Las Vegas hotels including The Frontier, The Sahara, Caesar's Palace, The Sands and Aladdin. 

By the mid-1970s she reigned as the Queen of Las Vegas, breaking attendance records and performing more times than any other female performer on the Las Vegas Strip.

Unfortunately, as her recording career fell further behind her, she performed fewer of her own hits and concentrated on tributes to other artists, often covering the music of yesteryear with her homage to The Andrews Sisters. Following the death of Elvis Presley in August 1977 she started including a tribute to Elvis in her shows and, apparently, one such show was attended by the King himself.

Her last stage production in Las Vegas was at The Sahara in September 1980. With no fanfare, no talk of it being her farewell performance or any  announcement of her retirement, Bobbie Gentry disappeared from public view.

She made just two more guest appearances, in May 1981 on the NBC Special An All-Star Tribute To Mother's Day where she performed the Broadway tune Mama, A Rainbow, which she dedicated to her mother and her last public appearance the following year at the Country Music Awards.

Bobbie Gentry was 40-years old and since that last appearance she has not performed, recorded or been interviewed again.

Fortunately for fans of this talented singer her music would live on.

In 2018 Universal Music released the deluxe box set Bobbie Gentry - The Girl From Chickasaw County: The Complete Capitol Masters. Presented in a 10x10 slipcase the set featured all seven of Gentry's albums with each featuring bonus tracks (alternate versions, demos, undubbed versions, foreign recordings and live tracks). An eighth disc brought together twenty-six previously unreleased live recordings from her BBC Shows. The CDs were housed in two gatefold sleeves with complete track listings on the back.

There was also an 84-page, hard-backed book with previously unpublished photos, record sleeves, memorabilia and an informative essay written by Andrew Batt. Also included were eight postcards and a lyric sheet which included some of the original and unused lines from Ode To Billie Joe. The box cover featured a newly commissioned illustration by David Downton.

The set soon sold-out and is currently unavailable. It is unclear if more copies will be made available. I'm just grateful that I picked up my copy early as it is now selling on various sites for between £100 and £200!

Fortunately for those who missed the set, or who are looking for a cut-down retrospective of her career, Universal have just released The Girl from Chickasaw County - Highlights From The Capitol Masters.

A two-CD set that includes 46 tracks all lifted from the box set and covering Gentry's seven albums and the bonus Live At The BBC disc.

Opening with Ode To Billie Joe the set concentrates on many of her most well-known and popular songs - Mississippi Delta, Chickasaw County Girl, Oklahoma River Bottom Band, This Girl's In Love With You and Hushabye Mountain, the latter being one of four tracks remixed for this release. However, the set also includes many less well-known album tracks and a welcome addition is a few of the rare tracks that made their first appearance on the deluxe set.

A 36-page booklet includes liner-notes by Andrew Batt, track details and, like the box set, features some great photos and other memorabilia.

An excellent release and a great introduction to the talents of this singer-songwriter whose short recording career produced a wealth of classic recordings.

With thanks to Stuart Kirkham