Richard Barone - Sorrows & Promises: Greenwich Village in the 1960's (2016)

Richard Barone, the singer/songwriter/musician best known as the frontman of the New Jersey-based indie band The Bongos, has released a new solo album with a self-explanatory title: Sorrows & Promises: Greenwich Village In the 1960s. On the 12-track recording, Barone revisits and reimagines songs originally associated with artists such as Fred Neil (“The Other Side of This Life”), John Sebastian and the Lovin’ Spoonful (who guests on his own “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind”), Phil Ochs (“When I’m Gone”), Tim Hardin (“Don’t Make Promises”), Eric Andersen (“Close the Door Lightly When You Go”), Janis Ian (“Sweet Misery”) and, of course, Bob Dylan (“I’ll Keep It With Mine”).

Barone also reaches beyond those core artists to include songs by the Velvet Underground (“Sunday Morning”), Richard Fariña (“Pack Up Your Sorrows”) and an early Paul Simon composition, “Bleecker Street.” The album opens with a couple of tunes by artists not usually associated with the Village scene of the ’60: Buddy Holly (“Learning the Game”), who was living and demoing songs in a New York City apartment shortly before he died, and Dion DiMucci, who is from The Bronx but performed solo acoustic blues in the Village clubs. Dion guests on Barone’s cover of his “The Road I’m On (Gloria).”

TRACKLIST

01. Learning the Game
02. The Road I'm On (Gloria) [feat. Dion]
03. Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind? (feat. John Sebastian)
04. The Other Side to This Life
05. Sweet Misery
06. Close the Door Lightly When You Go (feat. Allison Moorer)
07. Pack up Your Sorrows
08. Don't Make Promises (feat. David Amram)
09. I'll Keep It with Mine
10. Sunday Morning (feat. Jenni Muldaur)
11. When I'm Gone
12. Bleecker Street (feat. The Kennedys)
13. Close the Door Lightly When You Go (feat. Allison Moorer) [Acoustic Remix]
14. Sunday Morning (feat. Jenni Muldaur) [Acoustic Remix]