Micky Dolenz

★★★★

Dolenz Sings Nesmith 7A. CD/DL/LP

Monkees singer/drummer covers cohort’s back pages on first solo LP in nine years.

The template was Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Sings Newman;

Micky Dolenz taking his erstwhile bandmate and pal Mike Nesmith’s songs from The Monkees, National Band and solo period and doffing his cap in a jaunty fashion. The results are endearing and generous, with many highpoints such as reimaginings of Different Drum and Circle Sky. The former becomes an attractive burst of pop, proving that whoever told Nesmith the song wasn’t suitable Monkees material didn’t know what they were talking about; the latter is reworked as a mesmeric raga reminding us how subversive The Monkees could be. Don’t Wait For Me provides another stirring moment – the first recording originally taken from Nez’s 1968 sessions with Nashville musicians shifted to the Appalachian mountains with acoustic guitar and Dolenz singing how much he cares.