Album Review – Bobby Dove’s “Fortune Teller”
Classic Country (#510.1) and Americana (#570) on the Country DDS. AI = “Clean”
By taking on the the most challenging aspects of heartfelt songwriting from the folk and Americana realm, and combining them with a classic country disposition and influence, Bobby Dove once again creates a vibrant and enriching listening experience that reminds you why you’re such a dedicated music fan, and why you devote time to digging deeper than the surface to discover the best stuff.
To track down the musical legacy of Bobby Dove, you have to trek north to Manitoba, Canada, though there’s no assurance Bobby will be there when you arrive. Dove’s new album, and third overall called Fortune Teller is less about divination, and more of a travelogue of a touring musician trying to make their way in the world, and struggling to make sense of love, place, and purpose like so many of us.
The hard-charging “Trans Canadian Blues” could’ve been birthed by your favorite Outlaw country band from the lower 48. Bobby’s duet with the great Jim Lauderdale on “Did I Speak Too Soon” is traditional country greatness with those perfect little classic piano and steel guitar parts. The heartbreaking “This Time” is a great showcase of Bobby Dove’s voice and sense of melody wrapped in classic country greatness.
But Bobby is just as much motivated to make songs that are involved and that say something as ones that revive the country sounds of old. As Dove intimates in “Dreamt I Met John Prine,” looking up to those preeminent songwriters of the past, and seeking their guidance and inspiration is an important part of this musical exercise.
This is where the more involved melodies and more nuanced stories arise through songs like the vulnerable, reflective, and honest “Not Much of an Outlaw.” Combining poetic songwriting with country heartbreak results in the positively devastating moments of “Leaving Manitoba” that makes you feel every aching moment in the aftermath of love. “Soon the snow will cover up my path to get back home,” Dove sings.
As sad and personal as Fortune Teller is, it nonetheless makes for a good traveling/road record with all the motion and geography in the stories, aided by excellent instrumentation throughout orchestrated by Bobby and co-producer Aaron Goldstein. A song like “Loose Screws” has that rhythm of the highway behind it, with the guitar keeping your foot heavy on the pedal.
But moreover, Fortune Teller is about getting lost in the in-between, like coins between the couch cushions—in-between a sense of home and the call of the road, in between country and Americana, struggling to find your place in life, so never feeling settled anywhere.
“Stand between the railroad ties, and wonder, ‘Who am I?’ This disease that I have known, worsens by and by,” Bobby sings in the opening phrases of the final song “SALEM.” Whether you ever truly find yourself in life, you’re happy to find the music of Bobby Dove due to how it speaks to you intimately about the open questions and restlessness we all feel in unsettled moments, assuring you that you’re not alone.
8.2/10
Purchase on Bandcamp
May 12, 2026 @ 8:46 am
They could go on the Hook.
May 12, 2026 @ 3:47 pm
Big Jilm,
You raise spare commenting to an art form.
May 12, 2026 @ 8:05 pm
The last review I did for Bobby Dove had 55 comments. There used to be lively discussions about music and artists here on reviews. Now the trolls waiting in the weeds to jump out and train wreck the discussion have run many long-time commenters off, and then turn around and complain when they say stuff that gets censored, as if they have a Constitutional right to destroy the community I’ve spent the last 18 years trying to build here. They’re black holes who just want to pull the rest of the world into the depression they’re in.
May 13, 2026 @ 5:04 am
I know it goes against your instincts but this is why places ban people. You let people be trolls it ruins it for everyone
May 13, 2026 @ 6:41 am
This is the other side of the equation that people don’t understand, and I still get hell for. I do delete comments, and I do ban people. You just never see that activity because the comments are deleted and the people are banned. So people assume that doesn’t happen at all and it’s just the Wild West here.
May 13, 2026 @ 7:09 am
Hey I’m not trying to give you hell for anything. I love the site and read it every day. And I have so far successfully listened to every album you have reviewed this year which was my New Year’s resolution lol. It’s been great!
May 13, 2026 @ 8:24 am
I appreciate that Harris, wasn’t ragging on you. I do get attacked regularly though for not moderating comments at all. In fact, Craig Jenkins who writes for Vulture/NY Mag recently tried to attack my credibility for the comments I allow on the site as opposed to any of the points I was trying to make. It’s a vector of attack that I regularly have to answer for.
May 13, 2026 @ 7:31 pm
Or maybe no one cares about the album.
May 13, 2026 @ 8:18 pm
DB stands for dog boner
May 12, 2026 @ 10:05 am
Damn fine record, the closer you look the better it gets – pretty rare here, lately.
May 12, 2026 @ 4:57 pm
Really enjoyed this one. Would never find something like this without this site
May 12, 2026 @ 5:09 pm
Good stuff, Trigger. Thanks!
May 12, 2026 @ 7:06 pm
I’m happy to see Bobby Dove’s music getting the praise it deserves !
May 12, 2026 @ 10:07 pm
Both those tracks are great she sounds like someone who should be widely known to me, these two songs sound effortless in a good way , meaning that if the rest of the album is of this standard or better youd think it would be among albums of the year. She seems too deserve more attention than shes getting.
May 13, 2026 @ 4:18 am
This looks interesting and I love the song titles. Despite it being name dropping, any mention of John Prine always catches my attention. Thanks for the review Trigger!
May 16, 2026 @ 12:14 pm
This one was great. I think I enjoyed it more than “Hopeless Romantic”. Back half of the album kinda lost me a little when the tempo stalled out, but “Trans Canadian Blues” and “Dreamt I Met John Prine” were really fun tracks.
Never gave any thought to how perfectly the name “Prine” can be metered in rhyme, but damn if Bob didn’t make it sound like a cheat code. Well done.
May 28, 2026 @ 6:46 am
Many excellent songs on this new album. I put Not Much Of An Outlaw on several playlists.
I also never would have discovered this artist without following Saving Country Music.