Karen Dalton
"Cotton Eyed Joe" (DEL01) The Loop Tapes / Live in Boulder 1962
Release date: October 23, 2007
ORDER NOW! 2 CD GATEFOLD JACKET - 21 TRACKS – 85 MINUTES
of NEVER RELEASED 1962 live reel-to-reel recordings. North American release includes bonus DVD not available on European import copies of this title. DVD contains live footage of Karen Dalton circa 1969-70. Remastered at ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS by Peter Mew.
CD 1 running time: 39’ 57’’
1- It’s alright (Ray Charles)
2- Everytime I think of freedom (Trad. spiritual)
3- Cotton Eyed Joe (Trad.)
4- Pastures of plenty (Woody Guthrie)
5- One May morning (Trad.)
6- Red are the flowers (Fred Neil)
7- Blues on the ceiling (Fred Neil)
8- Run tell that major (Trad.)
9- Down and out (Cox-Feldman)
10- Fannin’ Street (Leadbelly)
CD 2 running time: 45’ 27’’
1- In the evening (Leroy Carr)
2- Old Hannah (Trad.)
3- Pallett on your floor (Jelly Roll Morton)
4- Prettiest train (Trad.)
5- Mole in the ground (Trad.)
6- Darlin’ Corey (Trad.)
7- It hurts me too (Mel London)
8- Katie Cruel (Trad.)
9- Blackjack (Ray Charles)
10- No more taters (Trad.)
11- Good morning blues (Trad.)
Karen Dalton
"Cotton Eyed Joe" (DEL01) The Loop Tapes / Live in Boulder 1962
Release date: October 23, 2007
Delmore is proud and excited to announce the release of a double album of previously unheard and unheard of KAREN DALTON live recordings from 1962. Also included and not on the import version is a DVD of live performances.
Recorded at The Attic (Boulder) by Joe Loop in October 1962 and featuring KAREN DALTON solo on vocals, 12-string guitar and banjo.
The album was remastered by Peter Mew at Abbey Road Studios.
These recordings are first of all an unexpected treat because we thought we’d never hear more than her 2 studio albums 'It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best' (1969) and 'In My Own Time' (1971).
Karen Dalton met Joe Loop in Boulder, in 1962. Colorado was a hotbed of folk music and people from both coasts knew about it.
Above: Karen Dalton Karen Dalton performing her version of Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child". From a French documentary filmed in NYC, 1969. Sample footage from "Cotton Eyed Joe" DVD.
Folk singers would stop off in Denver and Boulder en route to California and New York. The sparse population of the area welcomed some company at a time when young nonconformists were personae non gratae in most states. It was a cheap place to live, Boulder had a large University and both cities had very active folk entrepreneurs.
Joe Loop - who briefly ran a club called The Attic in Boulder - and Karen hit it off immediately. Joe was originally a jazz man but was very excited by the folk boom. He booked Karen to play The Attic on the spot, immediately recognising her unique style. He also became her occasional drummer, one of her closest friends and, luckily, the engineer and depository of her recorded output at that time.
Karen recorded a few songs alone, at home on Joe’s reel-to-reel machine, experimenting and enjoying the potential for overdubs at a time when ‘home studios’ and ‘multi-track’ recordings were far from the norm.
She also consented to Joe recording her live performances.
The recordings are also a welcome find for the music genealogist.
After missing her name in every music history book and encyclopedia for decades, it has been noted recently that Karen was hugely influential on the founding father of Folk-Rock, Fred Neil. In all his life Fred Neil only ever broke his reluctance to make public statements on one subject, to tell of his awe and debt to Karen.
Karen Dalton’s first LP was recorded in 1969 and it was hard to guess whether she was inspired by Neil or the reverse. His song Red Are The Flowers for instance, as recorded on his 1964 first album 'Tear Down The Walls' (as 'Red Flowers') in a duet with Vince Martin - was more in line in terms of style and tempo with the day’s hootenannys than with the LPs that Fred would eventually record in 1966 ('Fred Neil') and 1967 ('Sessions') under the benevolent laissez-faire of Nik Venet.
Karen Dalton's rendition of 'Red Are The Flowers' on The Loop Tapes showcase her playing Fred’s song in the style that he would later evolve into, when unhinged, and foretells the lyricism that one Tim Buckley would self-admittedly lift from his all-time model, Neil.
Another example is 'It’s Alright', a breath-taking cover of a Ray Charles’ tune. Another major singer-songwriter under Karen’s spell, Tim Hardin, made no secret of his passion for Ray’s music. Hardin is known to have turned from art to music because of his encounter with Karen in New York and he spent most of the sixties next to Karen and Joe Loop around Boulder.
The NPR feature has obviously done the business! I've already had 140 people today hit my blog at insomniacafe. wordpress. com by searching for 'Karen Dalton'.
Recent tragedy here in Omaha struck us hard as we have had enormous personal loss from the shooting&other recent events. We are deeply saddened by the loss of lives of good people and a sad young man who was unable to find his way. As a juvenile attorney and nurse,we have saved some and lost others.We do well as a community to pull together and I truly believe the future will be bright.. We wrote a song. It's simple and we offer it to our friends. "One Last Song." is at myspace. Please take time to go there and listen. Love and Peace
