Folkier second effort by singer best known for songs
Hardin’s second album opens with his most famous composition, “If I Were a Carpenter,” which was subsequently taken into the top ten by Bobby Darin. Darin borrowed a great deal of his phrasing from Hardin’s original, as he did for much of the folk-rock he recorded in the mid-60s. Hardin’s version is more introspective and raw than Darin’s, and while apparently too sparse for top-40 radio, its powers as both a song and a performance are still quite evident. By 1967 Hardin had moved with the times from his earlier blues works into folk-rock, and here into a slightly more mystical sound. The jazz phrasings that made Hardin sound like a passive take on Mose Allison are mostly gone (the ragtime “See Where You Are and Get Out,” is one exception), giving way to a more pensive and introspective style that’s often accompanied only by acoustic guitar and light rhythm. Tim Hardin 2 has been packaged here as straight-up reissue, but it’s also been available as a two-fer with its followup, and as part of the complete Hang on to a Dream: The Verve Recordings. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]