BARBARA DICKSON - CARNEGIE HALL, DUNFERMLINE
(New Musical Express 1977)
To this audience, packed into the sold-out Carnegie Hall, Barbara Dickson is something special - the hometown girl made good.
But I suppose to most people the name Barbara Dickson conjures up that photo of a white, expressionless visage gazing out from under an ironed out Afro. That's about it as far as her image is concerned - that and her track record. One neat hit single with "Answer Me", one of the few bright moments from the dreaded "Evita" with "Another Suitcase In Another Hall", and a stint at the ivories with the "John Paul George Ringo...And Bert" show.
It's not a lot to go on, but there is more. Barbara Dickson, you see, has one of those voices.
Boy, can this lady sing! She can glide with glacial beauty, bright and pure, through the high notes. She can slip down to husky warmth, and she can burn with straightahead soul power. When she sang the folk clubs, she could transfix with feeling and intensity. Now she's moving on again, but that voice is still there...
The work that Barbara Dickson is doing is hard to pigeonhole. There's tastefully chosen contemporary material as always: Steve Goodman's "City Of New Orleans", "The Tatler" a la Ry Cooder, Gerry Rafferty's "City To City" and a couple of Beatles songs as encores.
Then she's slipped in a couple of her own songs, and very good they are too. "Who Was It Stole Your Heart Away" is dead catchy and would make a very acceptable summer single. "I Could Fall" is beautiful - a simple, wistful, conemplative song that's reminiscent of "Send In The Clowns".
But most of what she does is a kind of pale version of soul with rock undertones. It's the kind of strained funk that you would associate with names like Troy Seal, Mentor "Drift Away" Williams and Barry Goldberg, who wrote most of the songs on the new album.
I have reservations about these songs. They seem to leave Barbara in a no-man's-land between warmth and power without ever giving her the chance to show what she's really capable of. Still, Seals and Williams (with David Bryant) did write the superb "Stolen Love", and the Dickson performance will have La Ronstadt for one looking to her laurels a bit sharpish.
My other small reservation is that the contribution of the four-piece back-up band, drums especially, could be made a bit more spartan. At present they take the edge off Barbara's voice to no good effect of their own.
But let's not be picky. Barbara Dickson fulfills a long-standing British need - a fine lady singer who's not afraid to try something a bit different. There'a a whole lot more to Barbara Dickson than meets the eye, and you should check her out.
(Ian Cranna)
BARBARA DICKSON/ANDY DESMOND - REDCAR
(New Musical Express 1977)
A sunny Sunday evening, end of the first really decent day of summer, set the perfect mood for the opening gig of this undemanding double-bill.
Star of the show Barbara Dickson has assembled a very tasty country-flavoured band to put across a well-planned set of mainly other artists' songs; their musicianship, her unexpectedly impressive singing and the attractive choice of material ("City Of New Orleans", "Here Comes The Sun" for example) quickly seducing the capacity crowd. I'd enthuse more but I know she's due to be reviewed more fully elsewhere...
(Cliff White)
