In My Own Time

Karen Dalton, who died in 1993 at age 55, was for a brief period in the 1960s the darling dark angel of the New York-centric folk revival. Her idiosyncratic voice originated in a deeply mellow tonal centre from which she drew breath, sometimes in gulps, linked with a warbling high register, which at times seemed on the verge of cracking into millions of glass shards. Although she did not write original music, Dalton possessed an extraordinary gift for interpretation, which she applied to traditional folk, blues and pop songs to create distinctively powerful music. To mark a half-century since the release of In My Own Time, Dalton’s second and final studio album, archival label Light in the Attic have produced In My Own Time (50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition).

Along with a newly-remastered version of the original recording on 45 rpm, 180gm vinyl, the set contains bonus tracks, previously unreleased live performances and a replica playbill from the Oklahoma-born artist’s legendary performance at the 1971 Montreux Golden Rose Pop Festival. It’s hard to imagine a more harrowing take on the Appalachian ballad, ‘Katie Cruel’, than the alternate take included on this compilation or a more desperately despondent rendition of Fred Neil’s ‘Blues on the Ceiling’. This deluxe presentation of Dalton’s output is an essential addition to any folk, roots or Americana library.