KAREN DALTON レコード& CD

Review: Reissued again (following an initial 2009 run) via Light In The Attic, 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 Native American singer made her mark on the seventies folk scene through a distinctly yearning sound, evoked through an unmistakable, tremolo'ing alto. On the album, her voice, exemplary of this, effortlessly pokes out from each quiet miasma of guitar, a template soon to be fleshed out by latter-day chart-toppers such as Lacy J. Dalton (whose name is a tribute) and Bob Dylan. Covering classics by Lead Belly, Fred Neil, and Tim Hardin, this is tender, one-of-a-kind country folk, with this edition coming as an all-analog version featuring remastered audio from the original Capitol masters.

Review: Karen Dalton is one of the most mysterious and enigmatic but also influential artists of her time. Her 1971 album In My Own Time is a real masterpiece that Light In The Attic now presented on newly mastered vinyl. It was originally recorded over a six month time frame at Bearsville and was crafted by producer and musician Harvey Brooks, a key figure in rock-jazz having worked on Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited and Miles' Bitches Brew. It's a wild and vivid record with walking basslines and manic melodies topped off with the expressive vocals.

Review: Here's a treat for all those who love blues and American folk music of the 1960s - a collection of previously unheard material from the late Karen Dalton and her frequent collaborator (turned romantic partner) Richard Tucker. Rescued from long-lost, but recently rediscovered, tapes, the material on show captures Dalton and Tucker performing live at iconic Boulder folk club The Attic in January 1963, and at a benefit concert for Congress For Racial Equality a year or so later. The recordings are intimate, magical and highly atmospheric, featuring a mixture of previously unheard Dalton songs and duets with Tucker. It's a brilliant snapshot of not only a moment in time, but also the vibrancy of America's folk revival of the 1960s. In a word: essential.