All the Good Times in Bloomington, MN

Alice Stuart
's first album was a typical effort from the tail end of the early-to-mid-'60s
folk
revival, devoted almost entirely to competent renderings of various facets of the
repertoire. There were
blues
(
"Stackerlee"
),
country
(the title cut),
old-time
music (
"Leavin' Home"
), a
Weavers
tune (
"Seven Daffodils"
"Once I Had a Sweetheart,"
the
Tom Paxton
song
"I Can't Help but Wonder Where I'm Bound,"
and a lone
Stuart
original, the routine period topical song
"Beatnik."
The only accompaniment is
's guitar and, occasionally, autoharp. Although these were sung pleasantly and reverently, there's nothing to make her interpretations stand out amid numerous sub-
Joan Baez
coffeehouse performers of the era; in fact, they're rather characterless. The 2002 CD reissue adds eight songs that draw from a similarly wide breadth of traditional sources, recorded at the same sessions; one song (
"Frankie and Johnny"
) has live audience response, though it's not explained in the liner notes whether that's from a separate recording setup. ~ Richie Unterberger