The Delta Sweete (1968)

Bobbie Gentry's smoky, breathy voice was unlike anything else coming out of the South in the late 1960s: low, rhythmic and intimate, as if telling you a secret over intricate acoustic picking and sweeping strings. This ambitious concept album explores the rituals and quiet indignities of Mississippi Delta life, blending country, blues, baroque pop and swamp soul into one atmospheric suite, with Gentry closely involved in shaping the arrangements.