Back in March, we shared some rare video footage of Karen Dalton performing at The Montreux Golden Rose Pop Festival in 1971 that briefly appeared on Youtube before it was removed. While its disappearance was unfortunate, it did give me an opportunity to talk more about Karen Dalton, a singer whose life has often been misunderstood and mythologised. The guitarist Peter Walker, also a close personal friend of Karen’s, published a book in 2012 titled Karen Dalton – Songs, Poems, and Writings. As I mentioned then, the introduction gave an open and honest overview of her life and struggles, the extract below is from that article:
In the book’s opening, Walker writes a lovely biography on Karen based around the time he knew her from 1961 – 1993. Of the many good times, one which stands out for the reader is the time they spent at Bob Brainen’s house in Woodstock around 1970. Bob kept an open house where the likes of Fred Neil, Tim Hardin, Walker and Karen would gather and play till dawn. As well as being a unique and iconic figure, Karen was also a root source for many singers including Tim Hardin who she was close friends with. Bob Dylan once described her as having “a voice like Billie Holiday’s and plays the guitar like Jimmy Reed and went all the way with it”.
While Walker doesn’t stray into addictions to alcohol and drugs which are often mentioned, he does highlight the terrible poverty she lived through – “She struggled with poverty more than any addiction of physical infirmity..”
In celebration of her studio album In My Own Time, released in 1971 and which celebrates its 50-year anniversary this year, alt-folk duo, The Breath – guitarist Stuart McCallum and vocalist Ríoghnach Connolly are releasing two stirring tracks via Real World Records in remembrance of one of America’s greatest voices and a lost folk icon.
The two tracks include Remembering Mountains and the classic Something On Your Mind for which they have also released a video below.
In 2019 Ríoghnach suffered her own her personal trauma and grief. Tasked with recording ‘a cover’, Ríoghnach and Stuart turned to this song first. “Karen’s voice is unearthly, it’s almost jarring and you can hear a harrowing pain in her vocal texture, the absolute sorrow is even in her phrasing” says Ríoghnach, “The lyrics ‘You can’t make it without ever even trying’ is such a potent line for me – this song is about survival” she adds “for me, being able to channel that in the song was a gift in catharsis.”
Needless to say, The Breath place their own mark on the song and what an epic performance it is.
It is the aforementioned book I mention from which the other song is taken, the book featuring personal songs and poems, written in secret. Remembering Mountains is one of those treasures, words as written by Karen, set to music by The Breath. A posthumous collaboration, of sorts. The gentle, longing track evokes memories of dusty orange sunsets across stark mountain gorges with Ríoghnach’s voice tender, lonely as she imagines Dalton gazing from her window, yearning to be back in a better place, in a different time.
The Guardian once said that “Dalton’s great gift was to sing lines other people had written as if she’d hacked them from her own soul with a chisel”. The accompanying press states ‘Ríoghnach Connolly is renowned for her extraordinary impassioned voice, here she climbs into Dalton’s soul and with empathy, compassion and from the heart, channels her solitude, sorrow and suffering.’ I can’t disagree with that.
“Karen Dalton is a singer I will always go back to. She’s a woman everyone should know”
Download via Bandcamp: https://thebreathmusic.bandcamp.com/album/something-on-your-mind-remembering-mountains
For details of their upcoming live dates visit: http://thebreathmusic.com/
Photo Credit: Duncan Elliott