If
Karla Bonoff's debut album sounded like the sort of record that
Linda Ronstadt or
James Taylor were making at the same time, that shouldn't have been a surprise: the rhythm section of
Leland Sklar and
Russell Kunkel was the same, the tasteful chicken-scratching of guitarist
Waddy Wachtel was present, and so was a cheering section including
Ronstadt,
Don Henley,
Eagle associate
J.D. Souther, and other charter members of the SoCal country/folk/rock club of the '70s. Also, Ronstadt had cut three of the songs on her last album and
Bonnie Raitt had done one. All of this meant that, despite
Bonoff's competent singing, which actually better accentuated the lyrics of her songs than
Ronstadt's, it was hard for her to get out from under the shadow of the members of her peer group who had preceded her. Nevertheless, the album's ten songs paint an effective picture of the ups and downs of love, circa the mid-'70s. ~ William Ruhlmann