Front cover

Back cover

Catalog Number(s):
LSA 3189 (Stereo LP)

Released: May, 1973
Peaked: #37 Billboard country chart.

Recorded: December 1972 at RCA Victor Studio, Nashville, TN
Producer: Jerry Bradley
Recording Engineers: Bill Vandevort
Recording Technicians: Mike Shockley
String Arrangements: Bill McElhiney
Vocal Accompaniment: *The Jordanaires & +Nashville Edition

Musicians:
Buddy Spicher — Fiddle
Weldon Myrick — Steel Guitar
Dale Sellers — Electric Guitar & Dobro
Jimmy Capps — Electric Guitar
Kenny O’Dell — Chip Young & Ray Edenton — Acoustic Guitar
Harold Bradley — Bass Guitar
Henry Strzelecki, Bobby Dyson, Steve Schaffer & Bob Moore — Bass
Byron Metcalf — Drums & Percussion
David Briggs — Keyboards
Bobby Thompson — Banjo
Charlie McCoy — Harmonica & Bass
Background Vocals: Larry Gatlin** & Juanita and Paul Kelley++

A note of praise and thanks to these people for their unexcelled musicianship and inspiration — Dottie.

**Larry Gatlin appears through the courtesy of Monument Records.
++Paul Kelley appears through the courtesy of Warner Bros. Records.

Special thanks to “Nowdy” Tadlock for keeping us on the right road.

Photography: Jimmy Moore.

Singles Released From Album:
If It’s All Right With You / Special Memory – 10-72
Just What I’ve Been Lookin’ For / Everything’s A Wreck (Since You’ve Gone) – 03-73

 Side One

  • 1. Just What I’ve Been Looking For+ (Larry Gatlin)
  • 2. Delta Dawn+ (Alex Harvey – Larry Collins)
  • 3. Killing Me Softly With His Song+ (Charlie Fox – Norman Gimbel)
  • 4. If It’s All Right With You+ (Gene MacLellan)
  • 5. Try To Wind A Friend+ (Larry Gatlin)

Side Two

  • 6. It Was Love While It Lasted+ (Red Lane – Larry Henley)
  • 7. Short And Sweet+ (Billy Joe Shaver)
  • 8. It Sure Seemed Right (Johnny Russell – Michael Russell)
  • 9. Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall+ (Larry Gatlin)
  • 10. I’m Your Country Girl* (Dottie West – Bill West)

Reviews

This album has everything, including one of her famous Coke commercial tunes. But it has feeling, plenty of it, and great numbers, which she performs to absolute perfection. Her list of musicians is a who’s who.

Best cuts: “Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall,” “Try to Win a Friend.”
Ms. Dottie is hitting all over the place country and pop. Country is big on her records and the “pop” is selling because of her commercial! A fine mixture of hit songs, country, pop and jingles. Recent title song hits make this a marketing masterpiece. Things go better with Dottie West!
There are several female country music superstars, but there is one, just one, who stands out from the rest. Dottie West. Country Girl. This album is an obvious “crossroads” in the proffesional career of Miss West. It’s country character is extremely smoothed out, exposing fantastic new horizons of her talent and style. It is immediately obvious that painstaking efforts were used in the selection of material, as each song fits Dottie like a glow. A beautiful marriage of artist and material. Even more obvious within this combination is a new influence in her life.
“You’re Just What I’ve Been Looking For” is the co-title song of the album and with “If It’s Alright With You serves to show us her personal statement of country. Although most of the cuts carry a very smooth, middle-of-the-road flavor, there’s absolutely no mistaking it for anything but country. Warmly delivered by a country girl. The Tanya Tucker hit single, “Delta Dawn,” and Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song” most assuredly come up strong in arrangement, delivery and production. In the capable hands of veteran producer Jerry Bradley, the overall production quality maintains exceptional good taste and basic simplicity, allowing Dottie’s performance to stay center stage throughout. Bradley deserves an ovation for allowing this freedom. If the song, “I’m Your Country Girl,” reminds you of the Coke commercial, you’re right, because Dottie wrote and performs the national commercial, “Country Girl Coke,” and recently signed a life-time contract with Coke.
The cuts, “Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall,” “It Sure Seemed Right” and “Try to Win a Friend” are potential singles, with strong theme easily indentifield by the masses through well-developed direct lyrics. Haven’t recently had the oppertunity of watching Dottie wrap up an audience in the palm of her hand and meeting her personally, I find this album to be a most natural presentation of the woman. This beautiful album is given a beautiful finishing touch with the jacket being totally in context with the contents. Miss West has scaled new moutains with this record and has reached amazing new heights for outdoing her previous fine efforts. There is a special place reserved for this lady in the history of country music. Her destimy is clearly defined. In all sincerity, I believe Dottie West to be the greatest female country artist alive today!

Poster ADS

Liner Notes

“When She Sings
You Know
She’s Singing to You.”

County Pop—Country Rock—Country Folk—Country Funk—and on and on and on—all the tags and labels we need to identify and pigeonhole the ever-changing music scene. At least we try. And amid all the changes, some artists fall by the wayside. But we, the listeners, are a funny bunch. We stay with what we like. And, after celebrating her tenth anniversary with RCA Records, it is apparent that Dottie West is no longer on a trial basis. She defies categorization. No tags. No labels. When she sings, you know she’s singing to you. Believable and touching. And isn’t that what music is all about. With these enduring qualities, I believe Dottie, a girl who was raised on country sunshine, is standing on the threshold of an even brighter career in the years to come. Listen and see if you don’t agree.

Kenny O’Dell
P.S. If you’re already a Dottie West fan, enjoy yourself. If you’re a “stranger,” well as Dottie says: You’re only a friend she hasn’t met.

Previous album
1973 | Would You Hold It Against Me