Karen Dalton
Encyclopedia
Karen J. Dalton (July 19, 1937 – March 19, 1993) was an American
folk blues
singer and banjo
player associated with the early 1960s Greenwich Village
folk music
scene, particularly with Fred Neil
and the Holy Modal Rounders
as well as Bob Dylan
.
, was born Karen J. Cariker in Enid, Oklahoma
. Her bluesy, world-weary voice is often compared to that of jazz
singer Billie Holiday
. She sang blues, folk, country, pop, Motown -- making over each song in her own style. She played the twelve string guitar
and a long neck banjo
.
In his 2004 autobiography, Bob Dylan
wrote this in his description of discovering and joining the music scene at Greenwich Village's Cafe Wha?
after arriving in New York City in 1961: "My favorite singer in the place was Karen Dalton. Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday and played guitar like Jimmy Reed... I sang with her a couple of times."
Dalton's second album, In My Own Time
(1971), was recorded at Bearsville Studios
and originally released by Woodstock Festival
promoter Michael Lang's label, Just Sunshine Records. The album was produced and arranged by Harvey Brooks
, who played bass on it. (Harvey Brooks played bass also on the Miles Davis
album Bitches Brew
, on the Bob Dylan
album Highway 61 Revisited
and on the Richie Havens
album Mixed Bag
.) Piano player Richard Bell
guested on In My Own Time
. Its liner notes were written by Fred Neil
and its cover photos were taken by Elliott Landy
. Less well-known is Dalton's first album, It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best
(Capitol
, 1969), which was re-released by Koch Records
on CD in 1996.
Both Dalton's albums were re-released in November 2006: It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best, on the French Megaphone-Music label, included a bonus DVD featuring rare performance footage of Dalton. In My Own Time was re-released on CD and LP on November 7, 2006 by Light In The Attic Records.
Known as "the folk singer's answer to Billie Holiday" and "Sweet Mother K.D.", Dalton is said to be the subject of the song Katie's Been Gone (composed by Richard Manuel and Robbie Robertson) on the album The Basement Tapes
by The Band
and Bob Dylan
. She struggled with drugs and alcohol for many years. She reputedly died in 1993 on the streets of New York
after an eight-year battle with AIDS
. However, an article in Uncut
magazine, confirmed that Dalton was actually being cared for by the guitarist Peter Walker
in upstate New York during her last months.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
folk blues
Country blues
Country blues is a general term that refers to all the acoustic, mainly guitar-driven forms of the blues. It often incorporated elements of rural gospel, ragtime, hillbilly, and dixieland jazz...
singer and banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
player associated with the early 1960s Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
scene, particularly with Fred Neil
Fred Neil
Fred Neil was an American folk singer-songwriter in the 1960s and early 1970s. He did not achieve commercial success as a performer, and is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material – particularly "Everybody's Talkin'", which became a hit for Harry Nilsson after being...
and the Holy Modal Rounders
Holy Modal Rounders
The Holy Modal Rounders were an American folk music duo from the Lower East Side of New York City which started in the early 1960s, consisting of Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber. Their unique blend of folk music revival and psychedelia gave them a cult-like following from the late 1960s into the 1970s...
as well as Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
.
Biography
Dalton, whose heritage was CherokeeCherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
, was born Karen J. Cariker in Enid, Oklahoma
Enid, Oklahoma
Enid is a city in Garfield County, Oklahoma, United States. In 2010, the population was 49,379, making it the ninth largest city in Oklahoma. It is the county seat of Garfield County. Enid was founded during the opening of the Cherokee Outlet in the Land Run of 1893, and is named after Enid, a...
. Her bluesy, world-weary voice is often compared to that of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
singer Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
. She sang blues, folk, country, pop, Motown -- making over each song in her own style. She played the twelve string guitar
Twelve string guitar
The twelve-string guitar is an acoustic or electric guitar with 12 strings in 6 courses, which produces a richer, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar...
and a long neck banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
.
In his 2004 autobiography, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
wrote this in his description of discovering and joining the music scene at Greenwich Village's Cafe Wha?
Cafe Wha?
Cafe Wha? is a club in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, New York City that has been home to various musicians and comedians. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, The Velvet Underground, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, Kool and the Gang, Peter, Paul & Mary, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Joan...
after arriving in New York City in 1961: "My favorite singer in the place was Karen Dalton. Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday and played guitar like Jimmy Reed... I sang with her a couple of times."
Dalton's second album, In My Own Time
In My Own Time
-Track listing:#"Something on Your Mind" - 3:23#"When a Man Loves a Woman" - 2:59#"In My Own Dream" - 4:18#"Katie Cruel" - 2:22...
(1971), was recorded at Bearsville Studios
Bearsville Studios
Bearsville Studios was a recording studio at Bearsville, New York just west of Woodstock, New York.The studio was opened in 1969 by Albert Grossman, manager of Bob Dylan, The Band, Janis Joplin and Todd Rundgren....
and originally released by Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
promoter Michael Lang's label, Just Sunshine Records. The album was produced and arranged by Harvey Brooks
Harvey Brooks
Harvey Brooks is an American bassist. He has played in many styles of music...
, who played bass on it. (Harvey Brooks played bass also on the Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
album Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew is a studio double album by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in April 1970 on Columbia Records. The album continued his experimentation with electric instruments previously featured on his critically acclaimed In a Silent Way album...
, on the Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
album Highway 61 Revisited
Highway 61 Revisited
Highway 61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released in August 1965 by Columbia Records. On his previous album, Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan devoted Side One of the album to songs accompanied by an electric rock band, and Side Two to solo acoustic numbers...
and on the Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
album Mixed Bag
Mixed Bag
Mixed Bag is a 1967 album by Richie Havens. Although often mistaken as his debut, this was actually Havens's third record. It followed two earlier, lesser-known releases on Douglas Records...
.) Piano player Richard Bell
Richard Bell (Canadian musician)
Richard Bell was a Canadian musician best known as the pianist for Janis Joplin and her Full Tilt Boogie Band. He was also a keyboardist with The Band during the 1990s.-Early life and career:...
guested on In My Own Time
In My Own Time
-Track listing:#"Something on Your Mind" - 3:23#"When a Man Loves a Woman" - 2:59#"In My Own Dream" - 4:18#"Katie Cruel" - 2:22...
. Its liner notes were written by Fred Neil
Fred Neil
Fred Neil was an American folk singer-songwriter in the 1960s and early 1970s. He did not achieve commercial success as a performer, and is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material – particularly "Everybody's Talkin'", which became a hit for Harry Nilsson after being...
and its cover photos were taken by Elliott Landy
Elliott Landy
Elliott Landy is a photographer best known for his iconic photographs of rock musicians. A 1959 graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, ten years later he was the official photographer of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. His photographs have appeared on the covers of such magazines as Rolling...
. Less well-known is Dalton's first album, It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best
It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best
It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best is the debut album by American folk blues musician Karen Dalton, originally released in 1969 by Capitol Records .The album was subsequently reissued on CD by the Koch label in 1997...
(Capitol
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
, 1969), which was re-released by Koch Records
Koch Records
E1 Music , the primary subsidiary of E1 Entertainment LP, is the largest independent record label in the United States. It is also distributed by the Universal Music Group in Europe under the name E1 Universal...
on CD in 1996.
Both Dalton's albums were re-released in November 2006: It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best, on the French Megaphone-Music label, included a bonus DVD featuring rare performance footage of Dalton. In My Own Time was re-released on CD and LP on November 7, 2006 by Light In The Attic Records.
Known as "the folk singer's answer to Billie Holiday" and "Sweet Mother K.D.", Dalton is said to be the subject of the song Katie's Been Gone (composed by Richard Manuel and Robbie Robertson) on the album The Basement Tapes
The Basement Tapes
The Basement Tapes is a 1975 studio album by Bob Dylan and The Band. The songs featuring Dylan's vocals were recorded in 1967, eight years before the album's release, at houses in and around Woodstock, New York, where Dylan and the Band lived...
by The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
. She struggled with drugs and alcohol for many years. She reputedly died in 1993 on the streets of New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
after an eight-year battle with AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
. However, an article in Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
magazine, confirmed that Dalton was actually being cared for by the guitarist Peter Walker
Peter Walker (guitarist)
Peter Walker is an American folk guitarist noted for dextrous instrumental pieces that reference the Indian classical and Spanish flamenco traditions...
in upstate New York during her last months.
Discography
- It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the BestIt's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the BestIt's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best is the debut album by American folk blues musician Karen Dalton, originally released in 1969 by Capitol Records .The album was subsequently reissued on CD by the Koch label in 1997...
(1969) - In My Own TimeIn My Own Time-Track listing:#"Something on Your Mind" - 3:23#"When a Man Loves a Woman" - 2:59#"In My Own Dream" - 4:18#"Katie Cruel" - 2:22...
(1971) The song Katie Cruel features on the Bert Jansch album The Black Swan (2006). Vocals include Beth Orton and Devendra Banhart. - Cotton Eyed Joe (2007) (recorded live in 1962)
- Green Rocky Road (2008)