Accept No Substitute : Delaney & Bonnie : Review : Rolling Stone

You know about Eric Clapton and George Harrison, but you may not know about the married couple that provided them with crucial inspiration for their Seventies music -- not to mention important band personnel (including Leon Russell and members of Derek and the Dominos). Accept No Substitute, the duo's long-out-of-print first album, is a wonderfully earthy mix of blue-eyed soul, gospel and country, brimming with grit and longing. Its mix of wailing harmonies, dirty guitar and Sunday-sermon piano was a pronounced influence on Derek and the Dominos' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, among other records. Delaney and Bonnie went on to record even greater albums for Atlantic Records (with Clapton and others) before their marriage and musical partnership broke up in 1972; be on the lookout for some more reissues from their catalog.

JASON GROSS
(RS 915 Ò February 6, 2003)