Karen Dalton: In My Own Time
The follow up to her rare lp on Capitol is very much in country rock territory. I was at first put off by the Nashville session musician type backing on all but two tracks – which are acoustic with Karen on banjo – but, upon further listening, it mostly works. The best tracks having a sort of Dylan “Blonde on Blonde” like feeling in how the roughness of her voice contrasts with the very slick music. A good example being “In My Own Dreams”. If the whole thing had this vibe I’d be really into it, but only about half of the songs do. The rest go from mediocre to borderline painful (the cover of “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You” is especially bad). Overall it’s just one of those frustrating records that I half like and the rest refuses to grow on me.
7 Comments
Totally agree with you, half and half record.
her cover of katie cruel is haunting and beautiful.
make believe album……..karen dalton singing joni mitchell songs (ladies of the canyon -> The hissing of summer lawns) produced by toni visconti. heaven or hell? maybe both.
nice site!
that shit is wack! sounds like esther philips doing country!
You do know that Esther Phillips DID an album of country material, right?
This album gets 5 stars just for ‘Something On My Mind’. Nice Dino Valente cover!
Karen Dalton was a contemporary of Fred Neil, Dylan, Vince Martin and that Bleeker St Village Folk sound. Her two LPs are considered acutely collectible to some of us Americana freaks. I presonally prefer this one over the Capitol one. I’ve worn out two copies over the years. There’s a great cast of Woodstock regulars playing on here. If you are at ALL a fan of current jazz-roots singer Madeliene Peyroux, you might be surprised at how much Karen Dalton;s voice resembles muc of Peyroux’s vocal texture and uncanny phrasing similarity to Billie Holiday at times. she is definitely an acquired taste, but one which has continued to haunt me. She died during the 1990s (as I remember), an exhausted victim of long term heroin use.
this cut has a boss sound.