In 1982 Linda Ronstatdt’s ‘Get Closer’ failed to go platinum and it looked like her career might have peaked. Jerry Wexler of Elektra/Asylum Records had found Lou Ann Barton working with Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble, and from the feel of the resulting album had decided that she could be the next Ronstadt.
Barton’s career either side of this album was resolutely in the blues world. But if ‘Old Enough’ had emerged at any time from about 1988 onwards it would have been called americana, and is easily the best thing she has been involved in.
‘Old Enough’ was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, backed by their famous rhythm section. Jimmie Vaughan was one of the headline guitar players, and he leads off opening song ‘I’m Old Enough’ with a bluesy flourish. This tune sets the intent for the album and could easily have been recorded by Ronstadt about 2 years earlier. As could the next song, Marshall Crenshaw’s ‘Brand New Lover’, which is turned into a country soul dance song. ‘It’s Raining’ is a ballad clearly intended for FM radio, on which Barton proves she can sing more than strident blues.
Songwriters were drafted from far and wide. British R&B singer Frankie Miller contributes two songs. Hank Ballard’s ‘Finger Poppin Time’ is played as straight 50s rock and roll, (Little) Walter Jacobs’ ‘It Ain’t Right’ gets an 80s makeover. One of the highlights of the album is Lavelle White’s ‘Stop These Teardrops’, funky, soulful, and would have been a hit a couple of years earlier.
And that may be why it didn’t sell at the time. Robert Christgau’s criticism hit the spot, complaining about Barton’s “tractability”. He suggested that she adopted different personas for her producers Wexler and the Eagles Glenn Frey, who seem to have produced separately, with Frey’s tunes being the ones that have the Ronstadt flavour with Wexler opting for jump blues/R&B style rasping sax solos.
Viewed from 40 years after the fact, ‘Old Enough’ is a fine album that shows off Lou Ann Barton’s talents better than the narrower blues focus of her later albums. In 1982 it probably felt too carefully packaged, right down to the soft focus, sultry cover photo. Positioned as a country soul ballad singer, ‘The Sudden Stop’ best known for the Percy Sledge version, and The Chantels ‘Maybe’ are both great renditions, she may have made some commercial headway.
As it was, the album felt a bit dated in 1982, so she was chewed up and spat out by the Elektra/Asylum machine after its relative commercial failure. Perhaps not to the extent that Judee Sill suffered 10 years earlier, but enough for her to retire to Texas and not record again for 7 years.
Indeed, a great album! Love her voice!