Columbia failed to release a
Dion LP in 1964-1966, although he cut more than enough material for the label during that time to generate one. Just months after
Dion had commercially returned from the dead with his smash "Abraham, Martin & John," Columbia patched together this assortment of odds and ends from the vaults, most of it apparently selected with an eye toward folk-rock material. Although the packaging was substandard, this is actually a pretty good collection of mid-'60s cuts that reveal (along with others that have surfaced on some other anthologies) that
Dion was among the earlier significant artists to create interesting folk-rock. It would have done much more to bolster his reputation had it been issued in 1965 or 1966. Nonetheless, it contains its share of good performances, like covers of
Tom Paxton's "I Can't Help but Wonder Where I'm Bound" (heard here in a version with strings, unlike the stringless one on the compilation
The Road I'm On: A Retrospective), and
Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," and "Farewell."
Dion himself wrote or co-wrote "Knowing I Won't Go Back There," "Now," and "Wake up Baby," which are all decent, tuneful folk-rockers with characteristic early New York folk-rock production from early
Dylan producer
Tom Wilson. The cover of
Woody Guthrie's "900 Miles" is quality acoustic folk-blues, and
Dion also proves himself a fine white bluesman on "Southern Train" and "The Seventh Son," taking a respectable stab at a
Mose Allison-styled arrangement of the blues standard "Baby, Please Don't Go." This is well worth picking up.