The December 2010 @MOJOmagazine covermount is devoted to the sounds of New York City's Greenwich Village during the earliest days of Bob Dylan's career. This is an excellent disc that may be considered a real-life version of the Inside Llewyn Davis soundtrack: tracks ranging from the trad folk of Pete Seeger to the revivalism of the Foc'Sle SIngers to the hard blues folk of John Lee Hooker to the poetry of Allen Ginsberg and Kenneth Patchen. For me the most undeniable song on this album is this haunting track by Oklahoma wonder Karen Dalton. Speaking of Dalton in his autobiography Chronicles, Dylan says this: "My favorite singer in the place was Karen Dalton. Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday’s and played the guitar like Jimmy Reed.” Nick Cave is another undisputed songwriting giant who points to Dalton as a major influence. Dalton has a voice that you will either love or hate and once you've loved it you may find it absolutely captivating.
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