Ronee Blakley – Self-Titled / Welcome
When Vincent Canby reviewed Robert Altman’s 1975 film Nashville, he said, “It could well be the high point in the careers of a number of its performers….What will Ronee Blakley or Henry Gibson or Lily Tomlin or Barbara Harris do for encores? It’s a tough question, but not an unhappy one.”
In Blakley’s case, Canby was correct, because her Oscar-nominated turn as doomed country singer Barbara-Jean would cast a shadow over her career. Blakley’s subsequent film work never delivered on her promise (her best-known movie since Nashville may be 1984’s A Nightmare On Elm Street); she documented the dissolution of her marriage to German director Wim Wenders in her self-directed 1985 film I Played It For You.
Acting may also have camouflaged Blakley’s musical gifts, but that obscurity has been enhanced by the scarcity of her music. Her two albums are only now widely available on CD. The 1972 self-titled Elektra debut features two songs Altman raided for his movie — the yearning “Dues” and upbeat “Bluebird” (contrary to Richie Unterberger’s liner notes, which beg for a fact checker and proofreader, Timothy Brown performed the latter in the film). Although the country-flavored material provides the album’s highlights, there’s some nice Joni Mitchell-influenced folky soliloquies mixed in (particularly the Blue-blooded “Cock O’ The Walk”).
The album did not catch fire, but when Blakley’s star rose in the wake of Nashville, Warner Bros. snapped her up for Welcome, recorded in Muscle Shoals by Jerry Wexler. On paper, it should have been a winning combination. But the soulful groove one associates with the storied studio and producer is hard to detect. Blakley’s two best Nashville songs — “Tapedeck” and “My Idaho Home” — get a studio sheen here, but not so you’d forget the wrenching live versions on the movie soundtrack. Dylan devotees may recognize the striking “I Need A New Sunrise” as the song Blakley performed on the Rolling Thunder Revue tour and in Dylan’s Renaldo & Clara film.
Scant evidence, but enough to conclude Blakley was worthy of a more fulsome music career, and certainly overdue for the recognition of these reissues. And, memo to Collectors’ Choice: Your efforts to make neglected music available are appreciated; the shoddy packaging is not.