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Carolyn Hester – Carolyn Hester (1961)

Posted on January 30, 2021

Carolyn Hester is an American folk musician from Texas and was a prominent figure in the American folk music revival in the early 1960s. I’ve really been interested in this era of music as of late, but am even more excited to have just found out that Hester was the first musician to feature Bob Dylan’s on an official recording. This record, Carolyn Hester (1961), is Hester’s third studio album, having released her first album in 1957, while her most recent album was released just 12 years ago in 2009. I’m pretty stoked to listen to this album, so with that said, I’m going to jump on into the music.
“The House of the Rising Sun” is the classic blues track. Holy smokes, Hester’s voice immediately catches my ear with high notes that remind me of Judy Collins or Joan Baez. Oh wow, the acoustic guitar work in the background has a super groovy bluesy folksy gallop to it. Wow, this track has such a different feel from any version I can remember listening to, and I’m very much digging it. Wow, great track and I’m excited to hear more.
Holy smokes, “The Water Is Wide” starts out with a very gentle warmth from both the guitar and the Hester’s vocals. Hester seems to sing in a lower registry in this one that almost makes me think of Judy Henske or Mary Travers when using the registry of Hester’s vocals in the previous track as a reference. Wow, the acoustic guitar work has such a gentle and warm feel, with some super great mids in the tone. Wow, super sweet track.
Oh wow, “The Lord” has a super interesting old spiritual feel with the folksy bounce of the vocals and the distant tapping as the percussion of the track. Super sweet tune.
Holy smokes, “Virgin Mary” takes things to a different style with a sound that I more generally associate with religious music. Holy smokes, Hester hits notes that remind me a lot of Joni Mitchell. The arrangement of this track is super interesting, seemingly walking a line between something like Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and an old blues-inflected folk tune, as the vocals and guitar seem to toe the line between those styles. Holy smokes, the intensity of the ending is super flavorful. Great track.
Oh wow, “Lindo Capullio” changes to a different language that I think is Spanish, which also seems to be reflected in the playing style of the guitar. Super sweet tune.
Oh wow, “Go Way from My Window” starts off with some super flavorful acoustic guitar work that seems to produce the sound of a leaf’s slow descent from the top of a tree to the ground at the start of autumn. Oh wow, Hester’s vocals get super sweet as she moves between a sort of tenor and falsetto registry with ease throughout the song. Great track.
“She Moves Through the Fair” is an old Irish folk song, and this version begins in an a-cappella style, with accentuations in Hester’s vocals that seem to suggest an Irish origin. Oh wow, the guitar gently eases into the soundscape and gets the tune moving quite nicely. Oh wow, the tune takes a sort of solemn, yet sweet turn at the end of the track. Super mellow, sweet tune.
“Jaime” brings even more of a really sweet singer/songwriter feel to the album. Super pleasant, short track.
“Little Pig” has a really interesting sense of movement from the relatively rapid strumming of the distant acoustic guitar in the background, while Hester’s vocals seem to guide the tune along in a super interesting singer/songwriter manner that evokes what I imagine to be a certain beatnik sensibility from the time period. Great tune.
Oh wow, “If I Had a Ribbon Bow” starts out with some low, nearly ominous, and relatively quick strumming of an acoustic guitar, while Hester’s vocal performance brings an olden, nearly European-sounding folksy feel to the soundscape that I’m really enjoying. Great track.
Oh wow, “Blackjack Oak” starts out with a sort of blues-inflected folk feel between the warm, sort of bluesy playing from the acoustic guitar, and the nearly solemn sound of the vocals. Oh wow, the guitar seems to drop away at times, bringing even more weight to the vocal performance. Holy smokes, Hester hits some super sweet high notes as she intensifies the vocals as the track comes to a close. Great tune.
“Malaguena Salerosa” brings about that sort of Spanish feel that was briefly touched on in the album earlier. Oh wow, the guitar work is super interesting, as the playing style seems to be a folksy flamenco of sorts, while Hester’s vocals seem to further enhance this sentiment with the Spanish lyrics. Holy smokes, Hester’s vocals move between registries with quite a bit of gravitas. Great track.
Holy smokes, “Summertime” is a cover of the old George Gershwin tune in a super interesting, bluesy folksy manner that reminds me of a some sort of acoustic version of the version that Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company made in the later 1960s. Holy smokes, the track ends on such a flavorful vocal line. Wow, great version of this tune and an awesome way to end the album.
Holy smokes, this album was sweet. I’ve been really digging the early 1960s American folk style recently, which this album features quite prominently and mixed with different bluesy, Spanish, and singer/songwriter flavors. If you’re a fan of the American folk revival of the early 1960s and artists like Bob Dylan, you might want to consider checking out this album. If you do decide to give this album a listen, I sincerely do hope that you enjoy the listening experience at least as much as I did.
-A

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