Sunday, November 26, 2006

"Carolyn Hester Coalition" 1968

Hester had been away from the recording scene for a few years when she re-emerged in the late 1960s as the centerpiece of the Carolyn Hester Coalition, a psychedelic- and folk-tinged rock group. It's hard to read this as anything but an attempt to keep up with the times on the part of someone who missed the boat that made folk and folk-rock a commercial proposition. Purism aside, this unexpected move wasn't a bad thing; Hester wasn't the greatest or most original folksinger anyway, so why not try something different? Her voice is still thin and almost unnaturally high, although not unappealingly so, on both rocked-up versions of folk songs she probably sang acoustically at one point ("East Virginia," "Let's Get Together") and tunes that are closer to fairly commercial psychedelic folk rock. It's not the most organic combination, with trendy fuzz guitars flitting in and out of the arrangements from time to time. It's not bad, though, and the brooding cover of Ed McCurdy's anti-war song "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" is an effective interpretation of a significant composition that was overlooked by other folk-rock acts. Indeed the album, on that track and others, is more downcast than might be expected, Hester moaning at one point "half the world is starving, half the world is overfed, half take sleeping pills at night, half don't have a bed." ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks very much for this post,It seems not to be too highly rated in a few places, but I'm enjoying it just fine. Shall have to lookout for the 2nd LP 'Magazine'.

Cheers! - SCM

26 November, 2006 14:14  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have never heard of this group but I thought I'd give it a listen. I am not disappointed. I find that quite frequently I like albums from this time period from groups I have either never heard of or at least have not listened to the album before.

Thanks!

Just Me

26 November, 2006 14:41  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

...and another great one!!!!!
Thank you for posting this.

Greetings

bobdylan(Frank)

27 November, 2006 08:09  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi,
Another blog has just posted 'Magazine' http://mysteryposter.blogspot.com/index.html

not grabbed it yet so don't know any details on bitrate etc.
Cheers!! SCM

27 January, 2007 23:16  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanx!
Hallo

20 March, 2009 18:50  
Blogger sabesloquetequierodecir said...

HI!

I LOVE YOUR BLOG!
I FOUND SOME ALBUMS THAT OPENED MY EYES!

COULD YOU RE.POST THIS ALBUM PLEASE?

THANKS A LOT

ÁLVARO

28 September, 2009 18:01  
Blogger waw5114 said...

I Have this album, I use to play "Last Night I had the Strangest Dream"
all the time.
Can you re=post this my record player has died a long time ago.

03 April, 2010 21:51  

Post a Comment

<< Home

2006 - - - - - - 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
2007 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
2008 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
2009 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
2010 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
2011 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
2015 - - - - - 5 6