Carolyn Hester
Encyclopedia
Carolyn Hester is an American
folk singer
and songwriter
. She was a figure in the early 1960s folk music
revival.
was produced
by Norman Petty
in 1957. In 1960, she made her second album for the label run by the Clancy Brothers. She became known for "The House of the Rising Sun
" and "She Moved Through the Fair
".
Hester was one of many young Greenwich Village
singers who rode the crest of the 1960s folk music wave, and appeared on the cover of the May 30, 1964 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. According to Don Heckman of the Los Angeles Times
, Hester was "one of the originals—one of the small but determined gang of ragtag, early-'60s folk singers who cruised the coffee shops and campuses, from Harvard Yard
to Bleecker Street
, convinced that their music could help change the world." Hester was dubbed "The Texas Songbird," and was politically active, spearheading the controversial boycott of TV's Hootenanny when Pete Seeger
was blacklisted from it.
After failing to convince Joan Baez
to sign with Columbia Records
, John H. Hammond
signed Hester in 1960. The same year Hester met Richard Fariña
and they married eighteen days later. They separated after less than two years.
In 1961, Hester met Bob Dylan
and Hester invited him to play on her third album, her first on the Columbia label. Her producer, John H. Hammond, quickly signed Dylan to the label.
Hester remained relatively obscure throughout the folk revival. She turned down the opportunity to join a folk trio with Peter Yarrow
and Paul Stookey and with Mary Travers
the trio found stardom as Peter, Paul & Mary. Though she collaborated with Bill Lee
and Bruce Langhorne
, she stuck exclusively to traditional material. In the late 1960s, unable to succeed as a folk-rock artist, she explored psychedelic music as part of the Carolyn Hester Coalition before largely drifting out of the business.
Hester has disputed David Hajdu
's depiction of her marriage to Fariña in his book Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña,, and of supposed exaggerations in his description of the relationships between Dylan, Baez, Hester, and the Fariñas. Hester denies that Farina was as close to Dylan as some rock historians claim, and strongly disputes that Fariña was in any way responsible for Dylan’s success, as Hajdu insinuated.
Hajdu also suggested that Hester had an ongoing rivalry with Baez and her sister Mimi. To this day, Hester maintains that she did not and does not know Baez well, and that they were never rivals, personally or professionally.
In 1969, Hester married jazz pianist/producer/songwriter David Blume, composer of The Cyrkle
's 1966 Top 40 hit "Turn Down Day," and together they formed the Outpost label. They also started an ethnic dance club in Los Angeles
, and in the 1980s she returned to recording and touring. She and Nancy Griffith performed Bob Dylan's "Boots of Spanish Leather" at Dylan's 30th Anniversary Tribute Concert at Madison Square Garden
in 1992.
In 1997, Hester toured Germany
for the first time. Her tour manager was Dirk Stursberg of M&K Management. As a friend she visited his home and bought a Teddy from his wife's company, the "Teddy Atelier Stursberg". A year later, Hester played in a festival in Denmark.
In 1999, Hester released a Tom Paxton
tribute album
. She appeared on A&E
's Biography
of Bob Dylan in August 2000. Blume died in the spring of 2006. Hester still owns and operates the dance club, and continues to perform and tour.
CD Reissues of Early Work:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
folk singer
Folk Singer
Folk Singer is a 1964 album by Muddy Waters. Waters plays acoustic guitar, backed by Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar...
and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
. She was a figure in the early 1960s folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
revival.
Biography
Carolyn Hester's first albumAlbum
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by Norman Petty
Norman Petty
Norman Petty was an American musician, songwriter, and pioneer record producer who helped shape modern popular music, including pop and rock....
in 1957. In 1960, she made her second album for the label run by the Clancy Brothers. She became known for "The House of the Rising Sun
The House of the Rising Sun
"The House of the Rising Sun" is a folk song from the United States. Also called "House of the Rising Sun" or occasionally "Rising Sun Blues", it tells of a life gone wrong in New Orleans...
" and "She Moved Through the Fair
She Moved Through the Fair
"She Moved Through the Fair" is a traditional Irish folk song, existing in a number of versions and which has been recorded many times.-Origins:...
".
Hester was one of many young Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
singers who rode the crest of the 1960s folk music wave, and appeared on the cover of the May 30, 1964 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. According to Don Heckman of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Hester was "one of the originals—one of the small but determined gang of ragtag, early-'60s folk singers who cruised the coffee shops and campuses, from Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard is a grassy area of about , adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University...
to Bleecker Street
Bleecker Street
Bleecker Street is a street in New York City's Manhattan borough. It is perhaps most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street is a spine that connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which was once a major center for American bohemia.Bleecker...
, convinced that their music could help change the world." Hester was dubbed "The Texas Songbird," and was politically active, spearheading the controversial boycott of TV's Hootenanny when Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
was blacklisted from it.
After failing to convince Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
to sign with Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, John H. Hammond
John H. Hammond
John Henry Hammond II was an American record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s...
signed Hester in 1960. The same year Hester met Richard Fariña
Richard Fariña
Richard George Fariña was an American writer and folksinger.-Early years and education:Richard Fariña was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Cuban and Irish descent. He grew up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn and attended Brooklyn Technical High School...
and they married eighteen days later. They separated after less than two years.
In 1961, Hester met Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and Hester invited him to play on her third album, her first on the Columbia label. Her producer, John H. Hammond, quickly signed Dylan to the label.
Hester remained relatively obscure throughout the folk revival. She turned down the opportunity to join a folk trio with Peter Yarrow
Peter Yarrow
Peter Yarrow is an American singer who found fame with the 1960s folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Yarrow co-wrote one of the group's most famous songs, "Puff, the Magic Dragon"...
and Paul Stookey and with Mary Travers
Mary Travers
Mary Travers , American singer-songwriter; member of the folk, pop group, Peter, Paul and Mary.Mary Travers may also refer to:* Mary Rose-Anna Travers , Québécoise singer known as Madame Bolduc or La Bolduc...
the trio found stardom as Peter, Paul & Mary. Though she collaborated with Bill Lee
Bill Lee (musician)
William James Edwards "Bill" Lee III is an American musician. He has played the bass for many artists including Cat Stevens, Harry Belafonte, Chad Mitchell Trio, Gordon Lightfoot, Aretha Franklin, Odetta, Simon and Garfunkel, and Bob Dylan...
and Bruce Langhorne
Bruce Langhorne
Bruce Langhorne is an American folk musician. He was active in the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s, primarily as a session guitarist for folk albums and performances...
, she stuck exclusively to traditional material. In the late 1960s, unable to succeed as a folk-rock artist, she explored psychedelic music as part of the Carolyn Hester Coalition before largely drifting out of the business.
Hester has disputed David Hajdu
David Hajdu
David Hajdu is an American columnist, author and professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is the music critic for The New Republic....
's depiction of her marriage to Fariña in his book Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña,, and of supposed exaggerations in his description of the relationships between Dylan, Baez, Hester, and the Fariñas. Hester denies that Farina was as close to Dylan as some rock historians claim, and strongly disputes that Fariña was in any way responsible for Dylan’s success, as Hajdu insinuated.
Hajdu also suggested that Hester had an ongoing rivalry with Baez and her sister Mimi. To this day, Hester maintains that she did not and does not know Baez well, and that they were never rivals, personally or professionally.
In 1969, Hester married jazz pianist/producer/songwriter David Blume, composer of The Cyrkle
The Cyrkle
The Cyrkle was a short-lived American rock and roll band active in the mid-1960s. The group charted two Top 40 hits, "Red Rubber Ball," and "Turn Down Day"...
's 1966 Top 40 hit "Turn Down Day," and together they formed the Outpost label. They also started an ethnic dance club in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, and in the 1980s she returned to recording and touring. She and Nancy Griffith performed Bob Dylan's "Boots of Spanish Leather" at Dylan's 30th Anniversary Tribute Concert at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
in 1992.
In 1997, Hester toured Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
for the first time. Her tour manager was Dirk Stursberg of M&K Management. As a friend she visited his home and bought a Teddy from his wife's company, the "Teddy Atelier Stursberg". A year later, Hester played in a festival in Denmark.
In 1999, Hester released a Tom Paxton
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
tribute album
Tribute album
A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may be either various artists making a tribute to a single artist, a single artist making a tribute to various artists, or a single artist making a tribute to another single artist.There...
. She appeared on A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
's Biography
Biography (TV series)
Biography is a documentary television series. It was originally a half-hour filmed series produced for CBS by David Wolper from 1961 to 1964 and hosted by Mike Wallace. The A&E Network later re-ran it and has produced new episodes since 1987...
of Bob Dylan in August 2000. Blume died in the spring of 2006. Hester still owns and operates the dance club, and continues to perform and tour.
Discography
- Scarlet Ribbons (1957) (Coral, LP)
- Carolyn Hester (1960) (Tradition, LP)
- Carolyn Hester (1961) (Columbia, LP)
- This Life I'm Living (Columbia, LP)
- That's My Song (1964) (Dot, LP)
- Carolyn Hester at Town Hall, one (Dot, LP)
- Carolyn Hester at Town Hall, two (Dot, LP)
- The Carolyn Hester Coalition (Metromedia, LP)
- Magazine (Metromedia, LP)
- Music Medicine (Outpost, cassette)
- Warriors of the Rainbow (Outpost, LP & cassette)
- From These Hills (1999) (Road Goes On Forever, CD)
- A Tribute to Tom Paxton (2000) (Road goes On forever, CD)
- "We Dream Forever" (2009) (Crazy Creek Records, CD)
CD Reissues of Early Work:
- Carolyn Hester (1994) (Sony) CD reissue of Carolyn Hester on the Columbia label.
- Carolyn Hester at Town Hall (1994) (Bear Family) CD reissue of both Town Hall albums.
- Dear Companion (1995) (Bear Family) CD box set reissue of Carolyn Hester on Columbia, This Life I'm Living and That's My Song with outtakes and alternate recordings.
- Texas Songbird (1995) (Road Goes On Forever) CD reissue of Warriors of the Rainbow and Music Medicine.
- The Tradition Album (1995) (Road Goes On Forever) CD reissue of Carolyn Hester on the Tradition label with four new tracks.
- The Tradition Years (1996) (Empire Musicwerks) CD remaster of Carolyn Hester on the Tradition label.
- The Carolyn Hester Coalition (2008) (Phantom Sound & Vision) CD remaster of original Metromedia LP.
- Magazine (2008) (Phantom Sound & Vision) CD remaster of original Metromedia LP.