Favorite Song of the Week - 10/16/2013 - In a Station by Karen Dalton

I've decided to do something new with this blog that might make updates a bit more frequent and routine. A weekly entry that I'm calling "Favorite Song of the Week." It's just a song that I've picked out to showcase here with no rhyme or reason except that I really like it. I'm not sure if this will remain a Wednesday thing, but it probably won't due to my college schedule. Something on the weekend is more likely. But for now, here's this week's entry, folk singer Karen Dalton's cover of The Band's In a Station.

Karen Dalton was an obscure folk singer who put out two albums in the lte sixties and early seventies. Bob Dylan himself said that Dalton was his favorite singer, comparing her voice to Billie Holiday's, which is a comparison that has been made about her by many people who have heard her. Dalton was different from most other folk musicians of the era due to the fact that she didn't write her own material, but after hearing her singing The Band's In a Station, it's really not that big of a problem. It's rare for someone to cover the band and actually improve on their material, especially with a song as good as Richard Manuel's brilliant In a Station, but she did it. Manuel's vocal performance on the original was one of his best, and considering that Manuel is one of the greatest vocalists in the history of popular music, somebody outshining his performance is no easy feat. But Dalton did it.

Her version is a lot jazzier than The Band's original, which fits the Billie Holliday comparison that people make of her. Her voice is a ragged, world weary croak, but in this context, it's absolutely gorgeous.

As for Dalton herself, the album this was on, In My Own Time was the last one she ever recorded. Some unreleased recordings have been put out in recent years, but she apparently never recorded again after 1971. From what I've read, she wasn't a psychologically well woman. She was more than likely psychotic and more than likely a life long drug addict. There are two semi-conflicting stories about her death. It's been confirmed that she died of AIDS in 1993, and it was initially believed that she died in the streets of New York City. It was later confirmed that she died in Upstate New York under the care of her friend, guitarist Peter Walker.