* En anglais uniquement
Although
Carolyn Hester's talent was tenuous, she was an important if marginal figure of the early-'60s folk revival, singing traditional material with a high voice in the manner of
Joan Baez and
Judy Collins (though with less command). She is also remembered for brief her musical associations with
Bob Dylan,
Buddy Holly, and
Richard Fariña, as well as having her early albums produced by music legends
Norman Petty (who had produced
Holly),
Tom Clancy,
John Hammond, and
John Simon. Some of her early- and mid-'60s work points, if only ever so slightly, in directions that would lead to folk-rock.
Hester herself was unable to make it as a folk-rocker despite a brief try, and unpredictably went into psychedelic music for a couple of albums before largely drifting out of the business in the '70s and '80s. In the '80s, she was a mentor for budding talent
Nanci Griffith (whose vocals have been compared to
Hester's), and appeared on
Griffith's
Other Voices, Other Rooms album.
Born in Texas,
Hester moved to New York in 1955 to get into music and acting. However, she would first record for
Norman Petty at his studios in Clovis, New Mexico, not far from Lubbock, Texas, where her parents were living in the late '50s. Her first album, Scarlet Ribbons, was produced by
Petty in 1957, and found release on Coral Records. In 1958, she did an unissued session in Clovis with
Holly, Jerry Allison of
the Crickets, and
George Atwood that would be fascinating to hear if it ever emerges, as it was rare for folk and rock musicians of the period to collaborate. She was a friend of
Holly's as well, although his influence on her subsequent music is not too audible, other than on her multiple versions of his "Lonesome Tears." In 1960, she made her second album,
Carolyn Hester, for Tradition, the label run by the
Clancy Brothers. This cast her very much in the thick of the folk revival, including her standards of the movement "The House of the Rising Sun" and "She Moves Through the Fair," sung in her high, almost shaky and girlish voice. In the early '60s, she was briefly married to author and folk singer/songwriter
Richard Fariña, who became friendly with
Bob Dylan shortly after
Dylan's arrival in New York. While recording her third album (also, confusingly, titled
Carolyn Hester) for
Columbia and producer
John Hammond in September 1961, she invited
Dylan, then almost unknown, to play harmonica on a few cuts. His work on the album helped bring him to the attention of
Hammond, who signed
Dylan to
Columbia as a solo artist shortly afterwards.
While other performers of the early-'60s folk revival made great strides forward in sales and influence -- including
Dylan,
Baez, and
Collins --
Hester remained relatively obscure. She turned down a chance to form a folk trio with
Peter Yarrow and
Paul Stookey, offered by manager Albert Grossman; that position went to
Mary Travers, and the trio found stardom as
Peter, Paul & Mary. In hindsight, her two
Columbia albums may have opened ears up to the possibilities of folk musicians recording with bands, as they included contributions by
Bill Lee on bass, future
Dylan sideman
Bruce Langhorne on guitar, and even light drums on a cover of
Buddy Holly's "Lonesome Tears" (not released until 1995). However, in sticking exclusively to traditional material, rather than covering songs by contemporary writers or writing anything herself,
Hester was falling behind the folk curve.
After her second album,
Hester moved to Dot, and began recording again with
Petty in Clovis. These 1964-1965 recordings, with a band including
George Tomsco of
the Fireballs on guitar, inched a little toward folk-rock without actually getting there, and also included some covers of material by then-current folk singer/songwriters like
Tom Paxton and
Mark Spoelstra. Through his friend
Hester, another
Petty recording artist,
Jimmy Gilmer (who recorded with
the Fireballs and had a number one hit in 1963 with "Sugar Shack"), met
Paxton and was influenced to record some of his songs on his 1965 Folkbeat album. (
The Fireballs got their last big hit with a cover of
Paxton's "Bottle of Wine" in 1968.) However, the Tex-Mex folk-rock sound, as produced by
Norman Petty and performed by
Gilmer,
the Fireballs, and
Carolyn Hester, never did make a substantial impact.
In 1966,
Hester was re-signed to
Columbia by
John Hammond. Although she made a good number of recordings there with producer
John Simon (known for his work with
the Band,
Big Brother & the Holding Company, and others), only two singles were released. One of these, "Early Morning, " was a fairly good commercial piece of pop-folk-rock, but
Hester didn't seem terribly well-suited to electric music. Other
Columbia recordings, most of which were not released until 1995 on the Dear Companion anthology, show her casting about for direction, running through material by
Tim Hardin, Jackson Frank, and
Cat Stevens, taking a stab at
the Beatles' "Penny Lane" and even doing an odd cover of
Ravi Shankar's "Majhires" that verged on psychedelic music.
In the late '60s,
Hester made the unexpected move to psychedelic music as part of the
Carolyn Hester Coalition, who recorded a couple of little-known albums for Metromedia. These were erratic but not half-bad, interspersing updates of traditional material like "East Virginia" and
Ed McCurdy's "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" with moody and fuzzy folk-rockers.
Hester also did some recording for Decca, RCA, and Capitol, and formed the Outpost label with her husband, jazz pianist/producer/songwriter
David Blume. With
Blume, she ran an ethnic dance club in Los Angeles, and she continues to record and tour occasionally. She was seen duetting with
Nanci Griffith on
Bob Dylan's "Boots of Spanish Leather" on a nationally broadcast tribute to
Dylan at Madison Square Garden in the '90s.
Hester continued to be musically active into the new century and released
We Dream Forever in 2009 -- the U.S. release appearing a year later -- an intimate album that featured her daughters
Karla and
Amy Blume co-producing, writing, and performing with their mother. ~ Richie Unterberger & Steve Leggett