Sit Down Old Friend/You're Not Alone

Performer: Dion
Producer: Phil Gernhard
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: 2 LPs on 1 CD: Sit Down Old Friend (1970)/You're Not Alone (1971). Dion's early-'70s albums have been quite overlooked, even in comparison to his similar late-'60s folk-rock records, and even by many Dion fans. This single-disc CD pairs 1970's Sit Down Old Friend with 1971's You're Not Alone, both records showing Dion continuing to mature as a singer/songwriter and blender of folk, rock, and blues stylings. Sit Down Old Friend was a change of pace even by the standards of his mellower, folk-rockish late-'60s comeback records. This was Dion unplugged: just him on acoustic guitar (both classical and steel string), and no other accompaniment, with all but three of the songs written or co-written by the singer. There's an intimate warmth and vulnerability here that you associate with demos that tend not to be issued in this original form, instead being embellished and worked over into something slicker. For whatever reason, in this case Dion was able to slip the material through to the consumer in this unadorned format. It's a wistful and reflective set, as unplugged acoustic guitar albums tend to be. But the inherent mellowness of the format is given a harder and more emotional edge by Dion's blues leanings, and the sense of a man emerging from hard times into something better. His voice has rarely been more expressive than it is on "I Don't Believe My Race Is Run" and the cover of Jacques Brel's "If We Only Have Love." It's a quality overlooked effort of the early singer/songwriter era, though it's missing any classic or hitbound tunes that might have made it a major work. You're Not Alone was a low-key record in which Dion continued his explorations into introspective music that bridged the folk-rock and singer/songwriter styles. Whereas Sit Down Old Friend was solo acoustic, though, Dion did revert to full-band arrangements for the follow-up. Fortunately, the backing -- including notable session players Paul Griffin on organ and Hugh McCracken on both electric and acoustic guitar -- was tastefully understated, which would not often be the case the further Dion moved into the 1970s. It's respectable, yet not as good as Sit Down Old Friend and his best late-'60s folk-rock records, with a slight slide in the quality of the material, and less of the near-naked atmosphere that made Sit Down Old Friend stand out. Sometimes the slow and introspective tenor of the tunes gets sluggish, rather in the same way as Bobby Darin's folk-rock records of the 1960s, though Dion was always a better and edgier folk-rock singer than Darin was. Most of the set is self-composed, and it's fair but not exceptional singer/songwriting, with covers varying from effective (Melanie's "Close to It All") to unimaginative (the Beatles' "Let It Be"). There's just one outing into the rootsy blues that Dion had developed a flair for from the mid-'60s onward, "The Stuff I Got"; "Attraction Works Better Than Promotion" has to qualify as one of his most offbeat song titles. The CD also adds a 1973 track, "Doctor Rock'n'Roll," as a bonus cut. ~ Richie Unterberger

Q (8/01, p.147) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Dion had undergone a transformation, becoming a blues-aware folk poet, offering spare songs sung in a scat-happy, melismatic manner....the album is strangely undated..."

Not unlike his friend Bobby Darin, Dion Dimucci was a native New Yorker who started out as a rock & roller in the 1950s and went through a series of drastic stylistic changes. He began as a doo wop hitmaker with his group the Belmonts, turning out such smashes as "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer." Over the ensuing decades, the artistically restless Dion tried his hand at blues, folk-rock, Phil Spector-produced pop, and hard-edged rock & roll, managing to maintain his credibility and integrity all along the way, and eventually getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

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