Karen Dalton: It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best [ELEMENTAL]

Why you'll love it

Karen Dalton's debut sets her singular voice to songs by Fred Neil, Tim Hardin, Lead Belly and Jelly Roll Morton. Originally on Capitol, it has been reissued again and again as each new generation finds her.

This edition

• Stereo mix
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

The Greenwich Village folk scene was full of people who had learned the old songs from records. Karen Dalton, by the account of Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders, came by them honestly: an Oklahoma-raised singer with a real folk background who arrived under her own steam.

She plays 12-string guitar and banjo, backed by Kim King on electric guitar, Dan Hankin on acoustic, Harvey Brooks on bass and Gary Chester on percussion, and she sings every line as if she's turning it over for the first time. Fred Neil's "Little Bit Of Rain" and "Blues On The Ceiling" open each side, Tim Hardin's "How Did The Feeling Feel To You" aches, Eddie Floyd and Booker T. Jones' "I Love You More Than Words Can Say" goes deep into soul, and Lead Belly's "Down On The Street (Don't You Follow Me Down)" sends it home.

Koch, Megaphone and Light In The Attic have all brought it back over the years, and each time a few more listeners fall hard for that voice. Plenty of writers have tried to describe that voice; we've found it easier just to put the record on.

Also at Kops: more Karen Dalton on vinyl · browse Folk

Tracklist

Listen

On Elemental Music (cat# 700213), a reissue of the 1969 album.