Where Have All the Seasons Gone is the third in a string of four superlative albums that Bobby Bare cut for the Mercury label in the early ‘70s. Although Bare had always been a sensitive interpreter of a diverse material—from folk standards like “Four Strong Winds” to relentlessly pessimistic murder ballads like “Miller’s Cave”—his Mercury albums were distinguished by rugged production and excellent song selections. On these releases, Bare turned his attention to the talents of young upstarts like Tom T. Hall, Billy Joe Shaver, and other up-and-comers from the outlaw movement. Though Where Have All the Seasons Gone doesn’t boast anything quite as strong as Tom T. Hall’s “How I Got to Memphis," which had made Bare’s first Mercury effort a minor national hit, it's a consistently impressive outing. Bare is particularly excellent on his restrained but powerful reading of Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times.” Bare's performance bests the more melodramatic version that Ray Price had taken to the top of the country charts only a year before.