Karen Dalton was a folk singer who truly hated the spotlight. Her music is vulnerable and intimate in a very unique way. Have you listened to Dalton? What did you think? Lemme know in the comments.
I'm on a KD kick lately. This woman's voice is SO expressive and unique. I have no words for it. If that's not impressive enough, she's a legit fingerpicking guitarist and banjo player with a world class folk repertoire.
When I first moved to Boulder Colorado with my family in 1964, Karen played the Attic folk cafe on Pearl Street that same year. I had no idea who she was at that time and I was I was only 14. But a few years later I met her while hiking around Summerville, an old mining town outside of Boulder. A brief encounter - she was playing guitar on the porch and waved to me as I walked up the hill by her cabin. Years later, I finally learned about her, the time she spent in Boulder, and her sad demise. Rest in Peace, dear Karen.
A friend asked me to get her 2nd LP. Rolling Stone reviewed it. When I played it I was stunned by her voice. My friend was too. I read something about it at the time comparing her voice to Laura Nyro. Her earlier record is easier on the ears. We thought at the time it was a much older person singing on that 2nd LP.
Her interpretation of ‘sweet substitute’ is what got me hooked. The sound was something that i had been searching for and stumbling upon her recordings was truly a gift. You can’t help but be frustrated by her lack of output but I think her art lives on in the artists that she has inspired. Joanna Newsom being my personal favourite.
There are a lot of artists that I would say marches to the best of their own drum, nut one that I really say does it consistently is Dani Lee Pearce, an artists whose music is a mix of progressive pop and theatrical showtunes. Brilliant works that aren't for everybody, but certainly worth exploration.
The original line, which comes from a passage in Henry David Thoreau's 1854 work, Walden was: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." Interesting how that has morphed with Linda Ronstadt's
