It’s a rare feat for an artist to seemingly have a single song define their career, especially one as impactful as “Morning Dew”—Bonnie Dobson’s haunting ballad of a post-apocalyptic world. Yet, as Dreams, her latest release, powerfully demonstrates, Dobson is far from content to rest on past glories. It’s a vibrant reaffirmation of her enduring talent, with six out of eight tracks being fresh compositions.
Dreams is Bonnie Dobson’s first record since she was coaxed out of retirement in 2013 with Take Me For A Walk In The Morning Dew (reviewed here). She is joined by The Hanging Stars, who, with five albums into their career, are arguably considered the best Americana band in the UK at present.
Opening with the first single, Baby’s Got The Blues, a hazy daydream of a number that fuses the mellifluous sounds of The Hanging Sounds with the purity of Bonnie’s vocal delivery, what’s apparent from the off is that she’s lost none of the vocal power or clarity she’s rightly renowned for. It’s pretty extraordinary for someone who began singing professionally in 1960.
The gleeful rush of Trouble follows, Bonnie singing, “I’m a sucker for the literary, and I like your footwear too”, so stick to comic books and wear your worst plimsolls if you don’t want to get too entangled with a woman who knows the risks, but is nonetheless still drawn to the thrill of an extramarital affair. It’s a number that complements the energy that defines this new partnership. It’s succeeded by Don’t Look Down, a slice of desert noir with real cinematic quality, a demonstration that this combo isn’t afraid to test the boundaries of genres besides folk rock, its Western border stylings, twangy guitar, and mariachi horns, somewhat redolent of the borderland atmosphere conjured up the likes of Calexico.
Things slow down for the more trippy and ethereal-sounding “On A Morning Like This.” A song of lost love, here Richard Olson joins Bonnie in repeating the song title, giving it something of a Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood feel. The use of the Solina String Ensemble, a polyphonic multi-orchestral string synthesiser, adds to its overall soundtrack-like quality.
You Don’t Know is the first of the songs on Dreams that Bonnie previously recorded. A melancholy breakup song, it first featured on her Good Morning Rain album. Here, its arrangements and production bring a real clarity to the sound, which is somewhat lacking on the original recording.
The understated use of acoustic guitar on You Don’t Know is in marked contrast to Stay With Me Tonight, the latter a remake of a 2010 German release, which demonstrates Pat Ralla’s guitar prowess. Its opening down-and-dirty country guitar riff would have the likes of Kenny Vaughan purring. “Don’t Stop, Don’t Stop, Don’t Stop / Let Your Love Roll On”, Bonnie implores, with some staccato, Augie Meyers-like vox keys allied to a guitar solo that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Dwight Yoakam classic. A real highpoint on the album, it also makes you wonder what The Hanging Stars could bring to other Bonnie Dobson standards, such as her country rocker, Southern Bound.
Get Together, a cover of Dino Valenti’s anthem – and the second single from the album – is a song that Bonnie Dobson has been singing since the 1960s: “Love is but a song we sing / Fear’s the way we die”. Originally recorded on her self-titled album in 1969, people have been saying in recent years that its message of love and peace is particularly apt for the modern era. And then 2025 came along. It’s not hard to see why it was considered ripe for an update.
The stately-sounding title track, Dreams, is saved for last. “Last night I dreamt of Canada / I dreamt I was on my way / To see my friends and my family / And this time I was gonna stay”. But everyday reality means, “You can’t go back / Not even in your dreams”. Reflecting on her “tangled past” and the ephemeral nature of existence. Touchstones of Bonnie’s UK existence since she moved permanently to England in 1969 – places like Somerset and Shropshire – are referenced in the song, seemingly without regret, though, because “You always can go home again, but you can never go back”. It’s a life-affirming tune that stands in marked contrast to the song she’s best known for, serving as a suitably satisfying coda to this short album.
Members of The Hanging Stars and fellow collaborators like Ben Phillipson (guitar on Get Together and Dreams), Large Plants drummer Itamar Rubinger (on Trouble, Don’t Look Down, and Stay With Me Tonight), Herman Ringer (arrangements on You Don’t Know) and Sean Read (keys, horns, and percussion) are deserving of the highest praise for their contributions. They’re unobtrusive at times but demonstrate their chops when required. If some of Bonnie’s earlier recordings were subject to a degree of overproduction, which resulted in an unnecessary pop sheen, then the arrangements on Dreams, expertly overseen by Sean Read, are right on the button.
We can only hope that there will be more to come from this brilliantly fruitful collaboration.
Dreams (July 11th, 2025) Loose Music
Bandcamp: https://thehangingstars.bandcamp.com/album/dreams