The Sounds of Women’s History Month #3

In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating overlooked and lesser known female musical artists from around the world. Though they may not be household names, in many cases they served as key influences on other artists who went on to be critical and commercial sensations. Their influence can still be felt strongly in the much of the music we listen to today, and many of them have fans and admirers from among today’s current music scene. In other words, these are artist’s artists—the ones in your favorite musicians’ personal record collections. So hunt them down, check them out, and let them show you why their names and their music should be on your lips. And while you’re at it, drop us a comment and let us know some of your favorite female musicians.

 

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Karen Dalton (1938-1993)

 

Karen Dalton was one of the most unique, but least known members of the 1960s Greenwich Village folk music scene. Born to a Cherokee mother in Oklahoma in 1938, Dalton moved to New York City in 1960 and soon became a fixture on the coffeehouse folk circuit, playing with the likes of Fred Neil and Bob Dylan. Because she was an interpreter of other people’s songs, rather than a songwriter herself (like many in the scene at the time) she garnered less attention than some of her contemporaries. Another reason for Dalton’s lukewarm reception is also her greatest asset: her voice. Described by many as sounding like a rural folk version of Billie Holiday, Dalton’s voice is something to behold. Although perhaps an acquired taste, its otherworldly sound is like a force of nature. Dalton was uncomfortable performing live and hated the act of recording, resulting in only two studio albums released in her lifetime. After her records failed to arouse much interest, she drifted away from music and into depression, alcohol, and drugs, eventually ending up living on the streets of New York. She died in 1993. Karen Dalton’s music has been championed by several musical giants over the years, including Bob Dylan, the Band, and Nick Cave. Cave even went so far as to call her his “favorite female blues singer.” Some rare live recordings of Dalton’s from the 1960s have recently been uncovered and released to rave reviews.

 

Watch Karen Dalton performing live in New York City in 1969 below.

 

 

 

The Sounds of Women’s History Month #2

In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating overlooked and lesser known female musical artists from around the world. Though they may not be household names, in many cases they served as key influences on other artists who went on to be critical and commercial sensations. Their influence can still be felt strongly in the much of the music we listen to today, and many of them have fans and admirers from among today’s current music scene. In other words, these are artist’s artists—the ones in your favorite musicians’ personal record collections. So hunt them down, check them out, and let them show you why their names and their music should be on your lips. And while you’re at it, drop us a comment and let us know some of your favorite female musicians.

 

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 Big Mama Thornton (1926-1984)

 

Willie Mae (“Big Mama”) Thornton got her start in music early in life singing at the Baptist church in Alabama where her father was a minister. In 1941, when she was just 14 years old, she left home for good and joined the Hot Harlem Revue, touring and playing music around the South for the next seven years. Ready to settle down, but not ready to give up her music, Thornton moved to Houston, Texas where she began her recording career. In 1952, she recorded the Leiber and Stoller song “Hound Dog.” The record was a number one hit on the R&B charts and made her a minor star, but was eclipsed four years later when it was recorded by a young man named Elvis Presley. Though she kept recording and playing throughout the 50s, 60s, and 70s, she never again had a hit record. In 1968 she wrote and recorded the classic blues song “Ball ‘n’ Chain,” but was again overshadowed when the song was famously covered by Janis Joplin later that year. Thornton recorded her last album in 1975, but continued touring until her death in 1984. At the time of her death, in a Los Angeles rooming house, the once 350 pound “Big Mama” weighed just 95 pounds. Though she never got the credit she deserved, Big Mama Thornton was musical giant, a legend, and a straight out steamroller. To hear her wailing, belting voice is to be flattened. To watch her dance on stage as she feels the music she is making is to know joy.

 

Watch the definitive (sorry, Elvis) version of “Hound Dog” below.

 

 

The Sounds of Women’s History Month #1

In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating overlooked and lesser known female musical artists from around the world. Though they may not be household names, in many cases they served as key influences on other artists who went on to be critical and commercial sensations. Their influence can still be felt strongly in the much of the music we listen to today, and many of them have fans and admirers from among today’s current music scene. In other words, these are artist’s artists—the ones in your favorite musicians’ personal record collections. So hunt them down, check them out, and let them show you why their names and their music should be on your lips. And while you’re at it, drop us a comment and let us know some of your favorite female musicians.

 

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Malvina Reynolds (1900-1978)

 

Malvina Reynolds was born in 1900 to Jewish socialist immigrant parents living in San Francisco. Despite being refused a high school diploma (because of  her parents’ opposition to U.S. involvement in WWI) she went on to earn a BA, MA, and Ph.D. Due to the prejudices of the times she was unable to find work as a college professor, so she went to work as a social worker and as a columnist for the communist newspaper the People’s World. During World War II she worked on the assembly line at a bomb factory. In the late 1940s she met Pete Seeger and other folk singers and was inspired to start writing her own songs. She began to gain some recognition as a writer when her songs were recorded by Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Pete Seeger and other popular performers of the day. Reynolds is best known for the song “Little Boxes,” with which Seeger had a hit single in 1964. Perhaps her most important work, however, was the songs she wrote in support of peace protesters, labor strikers, and environmental activists. Later in her life and career she also wrote some children’s songs and contributed music to Sesame Street. She has gained modest recognition recently as her “Little Boxes” was chosen as the theme song for the television show Weeds. It has since been covered by Iggy Pop, Elvis Costello, Linkin Park, Devendra Banhart, Regina Spektor, and others. Malvina Reynolds died in 1978.

 

Watch Malvina Reynolds performing her song “No Hole in My Head” with Pete Seeger and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot below.