"Sometimes Happy Times"

17 Sunshine Pop Recordings by Dotti Holmberg

Recorded 1966-1970 (previously unissued)

Released by Sundazed Music 2002

Editorial Review

Album Description:

Her clarion voice can be heard ringing with the GoldeBriars, the folk-pop group she formed with Curt Boettcher and as part of the heavenly chorus that lifted Boettcher's productions into the stratosphere. Sometimes Happy Times features 17 unissued masterpieces of sunshine pop, including collaborations with Boettcher, Sandy Salisbury, & Keith Olsen (Millennium), demos and home recordings from 1966-1970 that are stunning in their simple beauty. Sundazed 2002.

STHT's now an album released by Sundazed Music on 2/17/23!

Album Description (now stereofonic, edited liner notes by Zoe Willard and more photos plus re-released CD includes 5 bonus tracks:

"Hopscotch" & 4 to include her brother Gary Holmberg: "Close to My Baby" "Meaning of My Mind" "Why" ^& "Natural High")

Sunshine pop at its finest! Dotti Holmberg’s dreamy vocals superbly combine with her innocent demeanor and saccharine lyrics to give listeners a spell-binding mixture of sticky sweet bubblegum pop. This LP features the former GoldeBriars’ demos from 1966-1969, studio recordings produced by sunshine pop maestro Curt Boettcher, and is pressed on colored vinyl! Sunshine pop at its finest! Dotti Holmberg’s dreamy vocals superbly combine with her innocent demeanor and saccharine lyrics to give listeners a spell-binding mixture of sticky sweet bubblegum pop. This package features the former GoldeBriars’ demos and Curt Boettcher-produced studio recordings from 1966-1969. The CD includes 3 CD-only tracks from Dotti’s brother Gary! After recording two albums for Epic and Columbia with The GoldeBriars, Dotti was left to forge a new path in the music business after the band broke up. She continued to write and record home demos in her Hollywood studio apartment, many of which are included here. A few years later, Dotti reconnected with ex-GoldeBriar Curt Boettcher. Curt, already recognized in Hollywood for his work with the Association, had started his own label: Our Productions. With Curt’s help, Dotti became the backup singer on the recordings of Tommy Roe, Bobby Jameson, Friar Tuck, and Lee Mallory, who would eventually become a member of Boettcher’s new recording effort, the Millennium. Then, in the classic case of the backup singer who advanced to lead, Curt decided to produce five singles with Dotti. Two of the songs were hers. The studio where all this took place, Columbia Records Hollywood, shared an amazing new technology with Columbia Records New York: two twelve-track tape machines synchronized to harness a total of twenty-four tracks. And this was the new plaything for two very particular talents, one in New York, the other in L.A.: Paul Simon and Curt Boettcher. The musicians who backed Dotti were pure cream: Mike Deasy, Ben Benay, Jerry Scheff, and Toxie French of the Wrecking Crew. But before the sides could be pressed, promoted and released, Our Productions went under and all of her recordings were shelved. Now unearthed and released from the vaults, Sundazed Music is delighted to bring Dotti’s music to light once again. Also available on CD!

YOU CAN NOW READ MY MARCH 2023 SHINDIG ARTICLE BY CLICKING ON THE COVER

Sample a 30 second sound clip of songs:

"I Sing My Song"
Written by Michelle O'Malley & Dana Adams
MP3

"Sea of Tears"
Written by Bobb Goldsteinn & Curt Boettcher
MP3

"Foolish Times"
Written by Curt Boettcher
MP3

"And We're One"
Written by Dotti Holmberg & Sandy Salisbury
MP3

"Let You Know"
Written by Dotti Holmberg
MP3

"The Bird (Didn't Die)"
Written by Dotti Holmberg
MP3

"To Touch Upon the Light"
Written by Dotti Holmberg
MP3

"The Essence"
Written by Dotti Holmberg
MP3

"It's Not Worth It At All"
Written by Dotti Holmberg
MP3

"Love Is"
Written by Dotti Holmberg
MP3

Good News--"Love Is" is now included in a short film, "Journey From Pinsk", by award-winning artist Magda Matwiejew in Australia....You can check out the film here:

Here's a free MP3 download of "Love Is"

"Baby's Blues"
Written by Dotti Holmberg
MP3

"Sometimes Happy Times"
Written by Dotti Holmberg
MP3

"Magic Carpet Ride"
Written by Dotti Holmberg & Randy Swickard
MP3

"Pickin' Daisies"
Written by Zell & Gary Black
MP3

"When the Wind Blows"
Written by Dotti Holmberg
MP3

"Love, Love"
Written by Dotti Holmberg
MP3

"Visualize"
Written by Dotti Holmberg
MP3
Youtube Video for "Visualize": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b02SL_3YaDY

Espanol Review November 2004--Click Here

THIS IS POP! REVIEW--Click Here

Includes 12 page booklet (lots vintage photos) with superb Liner Notes written by Bobb Goldsteinn:

EXCERPT (1st few paragraphs from Liner Notes)

NATURALLY HIGH: THE SONGS OF DOTTI HOLMBERG.

PART I: �Singing, Dancing, Dreaming.�

In what could be viewed as a classic reversal to a familiar rags to riches saga, Dotti Holmberg was born right in the lap of show business�Hollywood, California�only to be almost immediately relocated to an extremely un-showbiz clime: The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Raggedly uprooted at seven months by something she couldn't possibly understand (her parents' divorce), Dotti and her baby clothes were bundled onto a train in the company of two year-old sister Sheri and their three year-old brother Gary. The trio of tots were being sent to live with a grandmother who had agreed to take them in.

By the age of three�and with Granny's encouragement (she'd even accompany the two on the piano)�Dotti and her five year-old sister were performing together as a duo. �We sang and tap-danced for everyone whether they wanted us to or not,� confesses Dotti. �Even in taverns. Where the money was better. Doesn't this sound like a movie? 'Playing for Pennies?'�

As in a movie montage, we see the girls grow both in height and in vocal technique. For a decade the two are introduced to audiences at church and charity socials as ��The Twin Cities� Own�The Holmberg Hi-Lite Sisters.� They learn to dress in bathrooms, boiler rooms and stairwells, but all the while the girls are sharpening their resolve to get back to Hollywood and 'make it in show business' � an admittedly fanciful goal. Still, success seems inevitable when they land on a nightclub stage, close-harmonizing through a songbook consisting of the �Third Man Theme,� �Lullaby of Birdland,� �Mississippi Mud� and the droll duet �Sisters.�

Players on Recordings--

Personnel: Dotti Holmberg (vocals); Randy Garcia (guitar, piano, background vocals); Sandy Salisbury, Mike Deasy, Ben Benay, Jerry Scheff* (bass guitar); Keith Olsen (bass guitar); Toxie French (drums); Curt Boettcher, Sheri Holmberg-Olsen, Michele O'Malley, Sandy Salisbury, Gary Holmberg, Lee Mallory, Randy Swickard, Allison Buft (background vocals).

*JERRY SCHEFF
    Bass Guitarist on "Sometimes Happy Times"
    http://www.jerryscheff.com
    http://tcbfanclub.com

Producers: Dotti Holmberg, Curt Boettcher, Keith Olsen.

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Press Release by Sundazed in May 2002 for Curt Boettcher's "Innocent Face" & Dotti Holmberg's "Sometimes Happy Times--CLICK HERE

Correction--On page 5 of the CD booklet, the picture is of Dotti & Randy Garcia (not Dotti and her brother Gary)

I no longer am offering "Sometimes Happy Times" for sale. They are readily available on the web....the 2002 and 2023 issues.

You can email Dotti at: thegoldebriars@gmail.com