Tim Hardin - Tim Hardin 1-4, Albums Collection (1966-1968) 4CD, Japanese Remastered 2008

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Tim Hardin - Tim Hardin 1-4, Albums Collection (1966-1968) 4CD, Japanese Remastered 2008

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A gentle, soulful singer who owed as much to blues and jazz as folk, Tim Hardin produced an impressive body of work in the late '60s without ever approaching either mass success or the artistic heights of the best singer/songwriters. When future Lovin' Spoonful producer Erik Jacobsen arranged for Hardin's first recordings in the mid-'60s, Hardin was no more than an above-average white blues singer, in the mold of many fellow folkys working the East Coast circuit. By the time of his 1966 debut, however, he was writing confessional folk-rock songs of considerable grace and emotion. The first album's impact was slightly diluted by incompatible string overdubs (against Hardin's wishes), but by the time of his second and best LP, he'd achieved a satisfactory balance between acoustic guitar-based arrangements and subtle string accompaniment. It was the lot of Hardin's work to achieve greater recognition through covers from other singers, such as Rod Stewart (who did "Reason to Believe"), Nico (who covered "Eulogy to Lenny Bruce" on her first album), Scott Walker (who sang "Lady Came From Baltimore"), Fred Neil ("Green Rocky Road" has been credited to both him and Hardin), and especially Bobby Darin, who took "If I Were a Carpenter" into the Top Ten in 1966. Beleaguered by a heroin habit since early in his career, Hardin's drug problems became grave in the late '60s; his commercial prospects grew dimmer, and his albums more erratic, although he did manage to appear at Woodstock. His end was not a pretty one: due to accumulated drug and health problems, as well as a scarcity of new material, he didn't complete any albums after 1973, dying of a drug overdose in 1980.

Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

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Tim Hardin - Tim Hardin 1-4, Albums Collection (1966-1968) 4CD, Japanese Remastered 2008

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Tim Hardin - Tim Hardin 1-4, Albums Collection (1966-1968) 4CD, Japanese Remastered 2008

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Tim Hardin's debut album was something of a happy accident, a killer record at least a third of which was comprised of tracks intended as demos, while another half utilized a string orchestra that the artist knew nothing about. Whatever its origins, Tim Hardin 1 is one of the most powerful and compelling records of its era, encompassing deeply personal and compelling poetry, blues, rock, and folk in settings ranging from stripped-down Sun Records-style rock & roll to lightly orchestrated folk-rock. The beautiful, briskly paced "Don't Make Promises" – which, along with "Reason to Believe," became one of the two huge songwriting hits here – opens the album on an ambitious note, its sound mixing a small-band and string section behind a confessional lyric. "Green Rocky Road" and the rollicking "Smugglin' Man" are both more in a traditional folk-rock vein, showcasing the darker and rougher side of Hardin's singing, while "How Long" carries listeners into electric blues that is as raw and stripped down as anything coming out of the British blues boom of the same era, and which could've passed muster on Chess' Fathers & Sons blues showcase. Hardin wasn't happy about the presence of the blues-style demos on the finished album, but when they're placed alongside such startlingly original and personal songs as "Reason to Believe," "Misty Roses," "While You're on Your Way," "It'll Never Happen Again," and "Hang on to a Dream," they vividly show off the sheer range of Hardin's singing and his musical sensibilities. The string accompaniment on most of those songs reportedly wasn't to Hardin's liking, but Artie Butler's arrangements are models of restraint, and the bluesier cuts here keep the album from going too far in that direction. And so what if "Ain't Gonna Do Without" was Hardin's informal joke based on "Hi Heel Sneakers," never intended for release? It offered some of the best blues harmonica that John Sebastian ever laid down on a record. The result is a seminal folk-rock album, every bit as exciting and urgent as it was in 1966, and as important a creative effort as Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. And this wasn't even Hardin's best album, though it set the pattern for everything he did after.

Review by Bruce Eder, Allmusic.com

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Tim Hardin - Tim Hardin 1-4, Albums Collection (1966-1968) 4CD, Japanese Remastered 2008

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While not as prolific as Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, or Neil Young, the prototypical folk-rocker Tim Hardin remains one of the greatest singer/songwriters, as much for his masterly delivery and subtle, jazz-inflected accompaniments as for the enduring songcraft of his classics "If I Were a Carpenter," "Reason to Believe," "Misty Roses," and "The Lady Came from Baltimore." Opening with "Carpenter," a song on the same level as "Like a Rolling Stone" or "Norwegian Wood," Tim Hardin 2 is a lovely, all too brief set from tune heaven. An unlikely highlight might just be its very last song, "Tribute to Hank Williams," which sounds nothing like a country song, but manages in just a few lines to bring the myth of Hank Williams forth into the beautiful chaos of the '60s: "Goodbye Hank Williams, my friend. I didn't know you but I've been to places you've been.

Review by Richard Mortifoglio, Allmusic.com

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Tim Hardin - Tim Hardin 1-4, Albums Collection (1966-1968) 4CD, Japanese Remastered 2008

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Originally titled Tim Hardin 3, this set was recorded live in 1968 with a backing band comprised primarily of jazz musicians. The support crew is a bit tentative; it's evident that they hadn't played much with Hardin, and in places the tempo comes close to breaking down. It's still a good, effective performance; Hardin is in good voice (a condition which apparently couldn't be readily counted on, even in his early days), and on the songs that had already been released on his first two albums, the arrangements vary from the recorded versions in interesting fashions. Live in Concert includes renditions of most of his best early compositions ("If I Were a Carpenter," "Red Balloon," "Reason to Believe," "Misty Roses," "Lady Came From Baltimore," "Black Sheep Boy") and half a dozen Hardin originals that didn't make it onto his first pair of albums. The best of these is the Lenny Bruce tribute, "Lenny's Tune," which Nico covered on her first solo album (where it was retitled "Eulogy to Lenny Bruce").

Review by Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

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Tim Hardin - Tim Hardin 1-4, Albums Collection (1966-1968) 4CD, Japanese Remastered 2008

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This collection of Tim Hardin's demos, recorded in 1964 as an audition for Columbia Records, was released in early 1969 by Verve/Forecast as though it were a newly recorded album. This did not amuse Hardin at the time, and the recording did nothing to enlarge his audience. However, the album holds some interest as a historical document. It's a batch of blues songs, highlighted by John Sebastian's harmonica playing, mixing covers of Chess blues classics with Hardin's original, though derivative, blues songs. "Airmobile" sounds like a direct rewrite of Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me," and "I Can't Slow Down" borrows from Robert Johnson's "Crossroad Blues." The arrangements employ an understated, low-key folky mix as opposed to a more overt Chicago electric blues sound. Still, there's more drive to the music than on a typical early-'60s folk album. This is not essential listening by any means, but it's pleasant enough to hear on a lazy, cloud-covered afternoon. [This edition adds eight additional bonus tracks that don't disguise the fact that this was, after all, an audition tape. Then again, it has value as a historical document, even if almost everything is a cover song. Hardin's real strength was as a writer, and that talent isn't quite fully formed here.]

Review by Jim Newsom, Allmusic.com