I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Savior did come for to die
For poor ornery people like you and like I
I wonder as I wander out under the sky
Hester was kind of ahead of the curve in the folk revival of the sixties. This is her first album and it’s mostly just her and her acoustic guitar. She’s a pretty good guitarist, but her style of singing is a little precious and her selection of folk songs (there’s not a single original on this album, I don’t think) leaves a lot to be desired. This album isn’t ever awful, but it’s pretty forgettable and occasionally a little twee. Her delivery on Little Willie is cringe-inducingly bad, but there’s a nice high-energy version of The Wreck of Old Ninety-Seven, which includes a brush drummer that is having a heck of a good time back there. The only song that really achieves any of the kind of transcendent, quiet beauty she’s going for is the final song, a lilting, very minimal version of I Wonder as I Wander. But you have to sit through a lot of trivia to get there. Also, this is the only album I’ve yet encountered to feature the lyric “I gave my love a chicken.” So that’s something. 1 ½ stars.
tl;dr – mostly forgettable acoustic folk album; good guitar work, pretty bad song selection, not great singing. 1 ½ stars.