Richard Dyer-Bennet #5

Dyer-Bennet's 1950s albums on his own label don't vary much from disc to disc. This at least is not among his duller ones, perhaps because the theme of the record was "requests." The singer devoted the bulk of the work to requests for songs that he'd previously done on other labels, which by the time of Vol. 5 were out of print, or in his view not recorded well the first time around. Ten of these, then, are remakes of songs he had previously released, although two, "I Ride an Old Paint" and "Edward," make their first appearance in the Dyer-Bennet catalog here. All that said, it's basically more of the same from the high-voiced tenor singer, cleanly recorded with his solo Spanish guitar accompaniment, including standards like "Greensleeves," "Barbara Allen," "Spanish Is the Loving Tongue," and "John Henry."