The Delta Sweete is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry. It was released on February 5, 1968, by Capitol Records. The album was produced by Kelly Gordon.
Background
One week after "Ode to Billie Joe" concluded its four-week reign at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, Gentry returned home to the South. September 30, 1967 was declared "Bobbie Gentry Day" in Houston, Mississippi, which is the county seat of Chickasaw County. It was estimated that 5,000 people attended. Life magazine turned up to interview Gentry for a feature story that would appear in the November issue accompanied by a photograph of Gentry on the Tallahatchie Bridge. Gentry returned to California the following month to begin work on her second album.
Recording
The earliest recording on the album, "Penduli Pendulum", was recorded on July 16, 1967, during one of Gentry's first sessions at Capitol Studios after being signed to Capitol Records. "Okolona River Bottom Band" and "Courtyard" were recorded on October 5. "Big Boss Man" and "Parchman Farm" were recorded on November 4, with "Big Boss Man" being overdubbed on December 13. The most productive session for the album took place on November 11, yielding "Sermon", "Reunion", "Refractions", "Mornin' Glory", and "Jesse 'Lisabeth". The last three titles would be overdubbed on December 7. The final two tracks recorded for the album were "Louisiana Man" and "Tobacco Road" on December 12.
Title and artwork
The Sweete in the album's title is a play on words, referring to both Gentry's southern-belle good looks (a pretty girl in the South might be called a "sweete") and the album's suite structure.
The cover art is evocative of the music on the record. It features a double exposure of a black and white close up of Gentry's face superimposed over a color photo of a shack on Gentry's grandparent's farm where she grew up.
Content
The Delta Sweete is a concept album based on modern life in the Deep South. Gentry wrote eight of the album's 12 tracks, which detail her Mississippi childhood and includes vignettes of home and church life ("Reunion" and "Sermon"), as well as recollections of blues and country hits she heard as a youngster ("Big Boss Man" and "Tobacco Road"). The song "Okolona River Bottom Band", accented by a sophisticated horn chart and breathy strings, used the same basic cadence as "Ode to Billie Joe".
Recording sessions for the album emphasized the unique sound of Gentry's guitar picking and her singing and phrasing styles. The prevailing sound on the album was a swampy, folk-tinged combination of blues and country, with uptown touches like strings and horns seemingly added to reflect the then modern styles of soul music and the Nashville sound.
The album opens with "Okolona River Bottom Band", a swampy southern groove featuring an intricate horn arrangement from Jimmie Haskell and Shorty Rogers. A cover of "Big Boss Man" follows. Gentry infuses the song with a little innuendo as she tells the audience with a small laugh, about finding her own boss "that's gonna treat me right". Track three, "Reunion", featuring Ramblin' Jack Elliott, is another Gentry original which paints the picture of a family bickering around the dinner table. It features a proto-rap structure to the rhythm of jump rope games from Gentry's childhood. "Parchman Farm" is a cover of a song by Mose Allison, which was itself a modified version of a song by Bukka White. The chain-gang lament blends into Gentry's Delta landscape perfectly. Track five is the sensual "Mornin' Glory", a Gentry original. Side one closes with "Sermon", an idiosyncratic take on the traditional gospel tune "Run On", making it seem menacing and perversely joyous at the same time.
The second half of the album begins with a cover of the bittersweet "Tobacco Road", performed in a cinematic style featuring a Mariachi band sound and strings. Track eight, Penduli Pendulum", is a perplexing psychedelic listening experience. "Jesse' Lisabeth" is a tender folk fable that exudes a foreboding feeling. "Refractions" is an eerie chamber pop number about a crystal bird suspended in the air, unable to land because its legs are broken. Track eleven is a cover of "Louisiana Man", and it is the only track that seems out of place on the record, due to its geographic departure from the album's title and theme. The album closes with "Courtyard", the story of a woman suffocated by luxury and imprisoned by the empty promises of her lover.