It's So Hard To Tell - KAREN DALTON***

Little Bit Of Rain/Sweet Substitute/Ribbon Bow/I Love You More Than Words Can Say/In The Evening (Its So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best)/Blues On The Ceiling/It Hurts Me Too/How Did The Feeling Fell You/Right Wrong Or Ready/Down On The Street(Don't You Follow Me Down)

Debut album from the Cherokee folk blues singer Karen Dalton. Known as the folk singer's answer to Billie Holiday, she also played twelve string guitar and long neck banjo.

"Karen Dalton has a Voice. Angels must sound like this, at least after a diet of whiskey and cigarettes. Comparisons to Billie Holiday are understandable if not quite exact since few others are even in the same ballpark. Obviously not to everyone's taste, but what do everyone know, anyway?"

"This was my first album of Dalton's and the right words fail to describe the impact it had. The best female vocalist I've heard in a long time. There are moments on this album where, if you're not careful, you may faint from how beautiful she sounds. Her voice, in all it's raspy glory, will leave you drenched to the bone."

"On this album, which is one of only two she ever did, she performs several Fred Neil classics, a few traditionals and a Tim Hardin song, but invests so much feeling into them, she makes them her own. Her style is a laid back blues with a folk sensibility. My grievance is that she wrote nothing here, as her songwriting equally matches her unforgettable voice. Still, a very worthwhile effort from an unsung folk hero."

"It's not bad by any means, in fact it's pretty enjoyable, and Ms. Dalton's voice is truly unique - a Billie Holiday-ish croak which owes as much to cigarettes and booze as to the blues. The trouble is that it all sounds the same. However, I could see how this would be a nice listen if you were a folkie, or just in a particular kind of mood."

"Her voice reverberates in this album like a saxophone in a smoky bar. An evocative instrument which she wields masterfully, transforming songs by other artists into intimate covers which sound as if they'd been written by the singer."

"It generally takes folk blues into an area of torpor that is too much for this listener . I think I could listen to a few tracks of it at a time to establish or enhance a mood, but not the whole thing in one go."