Karen Dalton

This article is about the American blues folk singer. For the basketballer, seeKaren Dalton (basketball).

Karen Dalton
Background information
Birth name	Karen J. Cariker
Born	(1937-07-19)July 19, 1937 Bonham, Texas,United States
Died	March 19, 1993(1993-03-19)(aged 55) Hurley, New York,United States
Genres	Country blues jazz
Occupations	Vocalist guitarist banjoist
Instruments	Vocals guitar banjo
Years active	1960s–1990s

Karen J. Dalton(bornJean Karen Cariker;July 19, 1937 – March 19, 1993) was an Americancountry bluessinger,guitarist, andbanjoplayer. She was associated with the early 1960sGreenwich Village folk music scene,particularly withFred Neil,theHoly Modal Rounders,andBob Dylan.Although she did not enjoy much commercial success during her lifetime, her music has gained significant recognition since her death. Artists likeNick Cave,Devendra Banhart,andJoanna Newsomhave noted her as an influence.

Life and career

Dalton was bornJean Karen CarikerinBonham, Texas,but was raised inEnid, Oklahoma.She also lived inStillwater,Oklahoma, andLawrence, Kansas.With two divorces behind her at the age of 21, Dalton left Oklahoma and arrived inGreenwich Village,New York City, in the early 1960s.She brought hertwelve string guitar,long-neckbanjo,and at least one of her two children with her.According to her daughter Abralyn Baird, at that point Dalton had lost two of her bottom teeth while breaking up a fight between two of her boyfriends.

Greenwich Village scene

Dalton quickly became entrenched in the Greenwich Village folk musical scene of the 1960s. She played alongside big names of the time, includingBob Dylan(who occasionally backed her on harmonica),Fred Neil,Richard Tucker, andTim Hardin.She covered many of their songs in her own performances. Dylan later wrote that "Karen had a voice likeBillie Holidayand played guitar likeJimmy Reed."She was among the first to sing Hardin's "Reason to Believe".She later married Tucker, with whom she sometimes played as a duo, and in a trio with Hardin.

While Dalton was a regular at famous folk venueCafé Wha?and performed at benefit concerts for civil rights groups,she was a reluctant performer who refused to sing her own songsand who used alcohol and heroin, which made recording and touring even more difficult.

Dalton moved toColoradowith husband Richard Tucker and daughter Abralyn (Abbe) and lived there for a while in the 1960s, in a small mining cabin in Summerville. Eventually she moved back to New York viaLos Angeles,and then toWoodstock,New York.

It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best(album)

Dalton was "not interested in playing the music industry's games in an era when musicians had little other choice," as bass player and producerHarvey Brooksnoted.She often responded in anger when producers attempted to change her music while recording.

At first, producerNick Venetwas unsuccessful in recording her first album,It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best(Capitol,1969). It was not until he invited Fred Neil to a session that they were able to come away with recordings. Even then, Venet and Neil were only successful by tricking Dalton into thinking the tape was not rolling.Dalton cut most of the tracks with one take, and all in one night.The record features songs from Neil, Hardin,Jelly Roll Morton,andEddie FloydandBooker T. Jones.It was re-released byKoch Recordson CD in 1996.

In My Own Time(album)

Dalton's second album,In My Own Time(1971), was recorded atBearsville Studios(which was set up by Bob Dylan's manager,Albert Grossman)and originally released byWoodstock FestivalpromoterMichael Lang's label,Just Sunshine Records.The album was produced and arranged byHarvey Brooks,who played bass on it. Piano playerRichard Bellguested on the album. Its liner notes were written by Fred Neil and its cover photos were taken byElliott Landy.Dalton brought her two teenage children, her dog, and her horse from Oklahoma to feel more at ease with recording.

Re-releases and tributes

It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Bestwas re-released on Koch Records in 1997, in collaboration with New York-based radio DJ and Karen Dalton fan Nicholas Hill, and with liner notes byPeter Stampfel.In 1999, the French label Megaphone music did a European re-release of the same album, which included a bonus DVD featuring rare performance footage of Dalton and a French TV feature on Karen Dalton from 1970.In My Own Timewas re-released on CD and LP on November 7, 2006, byLight in the Attic Records.

Two recordings from 1962 and 1963, previously owned by Karen's friend Joe Loop who ran the little club "The Attic" in Boulder in the early 1960s, were released on Megaphone in 2007 and 2008 as live albumCotton Eyed Joeand the home-recorded albumGreen Rocky Road.

The compilation tribute album,Remembering Mountains: Unheard Songs by Karen Dalton,was released in 2015 by folk label Tompkins Square.In similar fashion to Wilco and Billy Bragg’s adaptions of Woody Guthrie songs inMermaid Avenue,the album features adaptations of Dalton's work by artists includingPatty Griffin,Lucinda Williams,Josephine Foster,Sharon Van Etten,andJulia Holter.The songs feature lyrics and poems Dalton wrote before her death, which were in the care of her friend, folk guitaristPeter Walker.

Style

Dalton's bluesy, world-weary voice is often compared tojazzsingerBillie Holiday,though Dalton loathed the comparisonand saidBessie Smithwas a greater influence. Dalton sang blues, folk, country, pop,Motown—making over each song in her own style. She played thetwelve string guitarand a long-neckbanjo.

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 byRichard ManuelandRobbie Robertson) on the albumThe Basement TapesbyThe BandandBob Dylan,who wrote of Dalton that "My favorite singer...was Karen Dalton. Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday and played guitar likeJimmy Reed... I sang with her a couple of times. "Fred Neil once remarked, "She sure can sing the shit out of the blues."

Modern artistsAdele,Nick Cave,Devendra Banhart,andJoanna Newsomhave all noted her as an influence. So does country singerLacy J. Dalton,who knew Dalton in Greenwich Village and adopted her surname as a tribute.

Later life and death

Commercial failure of her albumIn My Own Timeand her estrangement from her children contributed to further substance abuse later in Dalton's life.

In later years, Dalton lived in a mobile home located in a clearing off Eagle's Nest Road, outside the town ofHurley,near Woodstock.

FriendLacy J. Daltonhelped send her to rehab in Texas in the early 1990s, a stay which lasted only a couple of days before she demanded to be taken back home to Woodstock.She died there in March 1993 from anAIDS-related illness, aged 55. According to her friendPeter Walker,she had been living with the disease for more than eight years.

Documentary

A documentary,Karen Dalton: In My Own Time,from filmmakers Richard Peete and Robert Yapkowitz, made its world premiere atDoc NYCin November 2020. Sheri Linden inThe Hollywood Reporterwrites: "As it introduces a one-of-a-kind artist to the uninitiated and celebrates her for aficionados, above all it listens — and invites us to do the same."

Discography

Studio albums

• It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best(1969)
• In My Own Time(1971)

Live album

• Cotton Eyed Joe(2007) (recorded live in 1962)

Other releases

• Green Rocky Road(2008) Recorded at home circa 1962-63, released by Delmore Recording Society; contains unreleased recordings.
• 1966(2012). Released by Delmore Recording Society; contains previously unreleased recordings.
• Remembering Mountains: Unheard Songs by Karen Dalton(2015), released by Tompkins Square.

External links

• Allmusic entry
• Illustrated Karen Dalton discography
• Light In The Attic Records "In My Own Time" CD.ArchivedDecember 6, 2006, at theWayback Machine.
• "Cotton Eyed Joe: The Loop Tapes/Live In Boulder 1962" CD & DVD and "Green Rocky Road" CD,Delmore Recordings.
• "Sweet Mother KD",BBC Radio 4,Seriously...,2016, documentary about Dalton.
• "Karen Dalton: Jeunesse d'une femme libre, de Greenwich Village à Woodstock".A comic book about the youth of Karen Dalton written by journalist Cédric Rassat and Ana Rousse (ed. Sarbacane, 2017, 150 pages).ArchivedSeptember 25, 2017, at theWayback Machine.
• A Bright Light: Karen and the process,a documentary byEmmanuelle Antille(Production Intermezzo Films, 2018)