Track Listing

1. Something On Your Mind
2. When A Man Loves A Woman
3. In My Own Dream
4. Katie Cruel
5. How Sweet It Is
6. In A Station
7. Take Me
8. Same Old Man
9. One Night Of Love
10. Are You Leaving For The Country

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28760 in Music
• Released on: 2006-11-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

CD Description
Among the legendary singer-songwriters of the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene, the late Karen Dalton was the interpreter and song-stylist of choice (in fact, Dylan himself rated Dalton as his favorite of the bunch). While she never achieved the kind of fame that her cohorts did, her influence was widely felt. One can hear her throaty, slow-burning take on country-blues singing in the voices of Lucinda Williams and other female alt-country singers. This 1971 release was only one of two proper albums she made in her lifetime, and the 2006 reissue includes all the original tracks, remastered,with a 32-page booklet and liner notes by Lenny Kaye (with input from other famous fans).

Customer Reviews

A lost classic
Recorded over a six-month period in 1970/71 at Woodstock, In My Own Time was Karen Dalton's only fully planned and realised studio album. It was released on the tiny Just Sunshine label in 1971, and consequently only ever received the most limited attention.

Dalton's first release, It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best, was recorded spontaneously one night at a Fred Neil session. Harvey Brooks - the bass player at the It's So Hard To Tell session (who also played with Bob Dylan and on Miles Davis's Bitches Brew) - produced In My Own Time and managed to persuade the reticent Dalton to share her enormous talent with the world.

The delivery of the first line of album opener Something On Your Mind makes clear the presence of a singer with a rare gift. Vocally, Billie Holiday is the closest comparison, but there's something more cracked, more grainy and more pained about Dalton's delivery as it emerges out of the Eastern-tinged intro.

The now somewhat hoary When A Man Loves A Woman is turned inside out by Dalton's fractured croon and How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) receives much the same treatment. Elsewhere, George Jones's Take Me and The Band's In A Station are both transformed well beyond their soul and country roots. It's the traditional blues number, Katie Cruel, with its haunting banjo and violin backdrop, where Dalton sounds most at home, recalling a host of lost Appalachian generations.

Dalton died in 1993, following struggles with homelessness and drugs. Remastered, with liner notes from Nick Cave, Lenny Kaye and Devendra Banhart, In My Own Time is made available on CD for the first time by Light In The Attic. It is, perhaps, the most perfect legacy she could hope to have left.

Worth a Look.
I took a gamble and got this album on the strength of the rave reviews and favourable comparisons to other acts I like. The album is also recommended by one B.Dylan, a certain N.Cave and others. I have to say I am always wary of artist endorsements since I feel they will often be looking at some quality in the music as it relates to their own, or may be just know the person.

My initial reaction as the first track hit me was WOW the gamble paid off, very different voice and a wonderful delivery, almost cracking with emotion on each note, one of the most amazing performances I've heard in quite some time. Unfortunately I would have to say only a few other tracks match it.

It perhaps isn't made clear elsewhere that there is no self-penned material on the album so track selection is crucial. Her voice doesn't suit all the songs chosen and the comparisons to Billy Holiday, whilst I can see certain similarities, are a little over-done.
This is NOT a slating;I do not regret buying the album as the best songs are well worth the purchase price, just don't expect "a great lost album" or you may be disappointed.

A final word on the packaging, while the music is paramount and such matters count for little if it is lacking, it must be said the CD is beautifully presented, the chunky cardboard sleeve comes with a substantial booklet featuring informative notes and some nice photos.

A 'real' folk singer
When I first heard Karen Dalton back in 1999 on her debut album what struck me was how she could take a song and make it something different. 'It hurts me too', well known by Elmore James is taken away from an electrified Blues/old-style R&B workout & made into a 'folk song'. 'Sweet substitute' so enamoured me that I sought out & bought the CD containing the original by Jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton. Karen loved songs, and she could do a lot with them, like Glen Gould in the classical sphere, she took music she loved & played it the way she wanted to. Her version of 'In a station' is equal to, but different from, that by The Band. The musicians on here are both complementary, and tasteful, and to able to perform such a well known song as 'When a man loves a woman' and make it sound like you have never heard it before bears testimony to the greatness of Karen Dalton. However, the personal standout for me is 'Same old man', an old folk song known by many different titles. It is simply haunting, and hardly out of my mind for long.