In My Own Time - 50th Anniversary Edition [CD]

Bob Dylan最愛之一！唱腔媲美Billie Holiday、彈琴有如Jimmy Reed。

在60年代末民謠風潮逐漸式微之際，在 Fred Neil 的鼓勵下錄製了首張以翻唱為主的專輯《It s So Hard to Tell Who’s Going to Love You the Best》，錄音的初衷甚至是為了Fred Neil希望個人收藏，而即便在1971年發行了第二張《In My Own Time》，也因為宣傳不足沒有獲得太大的迴響。

Karen Dalton不迎合市場，在民謠中混合藍調、爵士、鄉村，她內斂、沙啞、獨特的嗓音，以及深沉的情感橫空出世，近乎靠著實力，沒有過度的製作或精雕細琢，絕對是地下經典。

Karen Dalton在晚年過著隱居的生活，於1993年病逝。2021年她的傳記紀錄片發行，提及在一次大火中燒毀了大多未發行的錄音及檔案，而唱片廠牌Light in the Attic透過其家人和朋友提供的原始素材進行重建，《In My Own Time》也發行了50週年紀念版。

挑戰聽一遍就心碎！
〈Something on Your Mind〉是店員私心的口袋歌之一，請務必將最後重擊心臟的憂傷小提琴聽完！

也另外推薦給年輕世代，收錄於未發行的現場演出專輯《Shuckin Sugar》的翻唱曲〈In the Pines〉，這首即是Nirvana在MTV Unplugged翻唱的〈Where Did You Sleep Last Night〉

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The Oklahoma-raised Karen Dalton (1937-1993) brought a range of influences to her work. As Lenny Kaye writes in the liner notes, one can hear “the jazz of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, the immersion of Nina Simone, the Appalachian keen of Jean Ritchie, [and] the R&B and country that had to seep in as she made her way to New York."

Armed with a long-necked banjo and a 12-stringed guitar, Dalton set herself apart from her peers with her distinctive, world-weary vocals. In the early 60s, she became a fixture in the Greenwich Village folk scene, interpreting traditional material, blues standards, and the songs of her contemporaries including Tim Hardin, Fred Neil, and Richard Tucker, whom she later married. Bob Dylan, meanwhile, was instantly taken with her artistry. “My favorite singer in the place was Karen Dalton,” he recalled in Chronicles: Volume One (Simon & Schuster, 2004). “Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday and played the guitar like Jimmy Reed.”

Those who knew Dalton understood that she was not interested in bowing to the whims of the record industry. On stage, she rarely interacted with audience members. In the studio, she was equally as uncomfortable with the recording process. Her 1969 debut, Its So Hard to Tell Who Going To Love You The Best, reissued by Light in the Attic in 2009, was captured on the sly when Dalton assumed that she was rehearsing songs. When Woodstock co-promoter Michael Lang approached Dalton about recording a follow-up for his new imprint, Just Sunshine, she was dubious to say the least. The album would have to be made on her own terms, in her own time. That turned out to be a six-month period at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, NY.

Producing the album was bassist Harvey Brooks, who played alongside Dalton on Its So Hard to Tell Who Going To Love You The Best. Brooks, who prided himself on being “simple, solid and supportive,” understood Dalton process but was also willing to offer gentle encouragement and challenge the artist to push her creative bounds. “I tried to present her with a flexible situation,” he told Kaye. “I left the decisions to her, to determine the tempo, feel. She was very quiet, and I brought all of it to her; if she needed more, Id present options. Everyone was sensitive to her. She was the leader.”

Dalton, who rarely performed her own compositions, selected a range of material to interpret—from traditionals like “Katie Cruel” and “Same Old Man” to Paul Butterfield “In My Own Dream” and Richard Tucker “Are You Leaving For The Country.” She also expanded upon her typical repertoire, peppering in such R&B hits as “When a Man Loves a Woman” and “How Sweet It Is.” In a departure from her previous LP, Dalton new recording offered fuller, more pop-forward arrangements, featuring a slew of talented studio musicians.

While 70s audiences may not have been ready for Dalton music, a new generation was about to discover her work. In the decades following her death, many artists would name Karen Dalton as an influence including Lucinda Williams, Joanna Newsom, Nick Cave, Angel Olsen, Devendra Banhart, Sharon Van Etten, Courtney Barnett, and Adele. In the recently acclaimed film documentary Karen Dalton: In My Own Time, Cave muses on Dalton unique appeal: “There a sort of demand made upon the listener,” he explains. “Whether you like it or not, you have to enter her world. And its a despairing world.” Peter Walker, who also appears in the film, elaborates on this idea: “If she can feel a certain way in her music and play it in such a way that you feel that way, then that really the most magical thing [one] can do.” He adds, “She had a deep and profound and loving soul… you can hear it in her music.”


1–10: Originally released as Just Sunshine – PAS 6008, 1971
11–13: Alternate Takes from album sessions, 1970/71
14–15: Recorded live at Beat Club, Germany, April 21, 1971
16–19: Recorded live at The Montreux Golden Rose Pop Festival, May 1, 1971