Dotti Holmberg is definitely a lesser-known name in the already niche world of sunshine pop and Baroque rock of the 1960s, but she contributed a lot to the sound by way of work as a backing vocalist on classic tunes by Tommy Roe, Friar Tuck, and others, as well as in her folksier proto-sunshine pop band the Goldebriars. Sometimes Happy Times serves as evidence that Holmberg had even more to offer than the times took her up on, collecting unreleased demos, fully realized studio tracks, and other ephemera from her time of ...
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Dotti Holmberg is definitely a lesser-known name in the already niche world of sunshine pop and Baroque rock of the 1960s, but she contributed a lot to the sound by way of work as a backing vocalist on classic tunes by Tommy Roe, Friar Tuck, and others, as well as in her folksier proto-sunshine pop band the Goldebriars. Sometimes Happy Times serves as evidence that Holmberg had even more to offer than the times took her up on, collecting unreleased demos, fully realized studio tracks, and other ephemera from her time of peak activity in the mid- to late '60s. After releasing two albums with Epic in 1964, the Goldebriars broke up, but shortly afterward Holmberg's Goldebriars bandmate Curt Boettcher found success as a producer and songwriter, playing key roles in hits by Tommy Roe and the Association, and legendarily (though not officially) influencing Brian Wilson to move away from surf music and into a more mind-expanding view of pop around the time Pet Sounds was made. Boettcher brought Holmberg in as a backup vocalist on some of his sessions, and in 1966, he arranged for recording sessions where she was the lead artist. Those recordings were locked in the vaults until the release of Sometimes Happy Times, but the giddy, naïve, and sugarcoated pop sound Boettcher excelled at makes its way onto tracks like the swooning chamber pop of "I Sing My Song" and the bittersweet orchestral ballad "Foolish Times." The more fleshed-out arrangements are joined by spare tunes like the lovely, bossa nova-lite "And We're One," as well as multiple stripped-down demos such as the moody folk of "Love Is," the eerie and softly psychedelic "When the Wind Blows," and the surreal double-tracked vocals and jaunty percussion of "Visualize." Holmberg's themes are childish and gentle for the majority of Sometimes Happy Times (nonmetaphorical lyrics about playing hopscotch, picking flowers, and rainbows all show up), yet there's an underlying melancholy that twists the emotional coloring of the songs just slightly. It keeps the entire collection from feeling so fluffy that it floats away, and reflects some of the duality of the happy but heavy decade Holmberg was existing in. This collection is a must for sunshine pop fans, but it might also perk up the ears of listeners more intrigued by pop-psych, private-press folk sounds, or the acid-damaged soft rock of lesser-known artists of the '60s. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi
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