Album Preview: Dion, The Road I'm On

Label: SPV Yellow

Dion DiMucci was the blackest of early-Sixties blue-eyed R&B boys, his influence on a subsequent generation of rockers measurable by noting the vocalists assembled to add the “whoa-whoawhoa” s behind him at a 1987 benefit concert...

... Paul Simon, Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen and Ruben Blades.

That’s some fan club, but then, Dion was some singer.

This 2CD compilation covers his years at Columbia, a transitional period during which he moved from brilliant doo-wop covers of “Ruby Baby” and “This Little Girl Of Mine”, through to rootsy Americana stylings reflecting the impact of Dylan, with folk-blues interpretations of “I’m Your HoochieCoochie Man” and “Spoonful” and a handful of Dion originals, arranged in decorative folk-rock manner by Dylan’s producer Tom Wilson.

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