Carolyn Hester

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Carolyn Hester (b. 1937, Waco, Texas) was an important figure of the early '60s folk revival, singing traditional material in the manner similar to that of later chanteuses such as Joan Baez and Judy Collins.

(Photo taken by Marri Lu Park)

Hester's first album was produced by Norman Petty in 1957. In 1960, she made her second album for the label run by the Clancy Brothers, thrusting Hester into the thick of the folk revival. She became known for such standards of the movement as "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 '60s folk wave to brief international recognition, 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.

In 1960, Hester met a struggling songwriter and novelist named Richard Farina. They married 18 days later, and according to biographer David Hajdu, their brief, rocky marriage was cultivated and exploited by Farina in a calculated attempt to gain fame and notoriety. They separated after less than two years.

In 1961, Hester met an unknown, 19-year-old newcomer named Bob Dylan, who had an engaging harmonica style, and Hester invited him to play on her third Columbia album. Her producer, John H. Hammond, quickly signed Dylan to the label.

However, while other performers of the early 1960s folk revival made great strides forward in sales and influence--including Dylan, Baez, and Collins--Hester remained relatively obscure. She turned down a chance to form a folk trio with Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey, offered by manager Albert Grossman; that position went to Mary Travers, and the trio found stardom as Peter, Paul & Mary. Though she collaborated with Bill Lee and Bruce Langhorne, she stuck exclusively to traditional material, falling behind the folk curve. In the late 1960's, 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 Hajdu's depiction of her marriage to Farina, and of supposed exaggerations in his description of the relationships between Dylan, Baez, Hester, and the Farinas. Hester denies that Farina was as close to Dylan as some rock historians claim, and strongly disputes that Farina was in any way responsible for Dylan’s success, as Hajdu insinuates.

Hajdu also suggested that Hester had an ongoing rivalry with Joan Baez and her sister Mimi (who later married Farina). To this day, Hester maintains that she didn't--and doesn't--know Joan very 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 performed Bob Dylan's "Boots of Spanish Leather" at Dylan's 30th Anniversary Tribute Concert at Madison Square Garden in 1992. In 1999, Hester released a Tom Paxton tribute album. She appeared on A&E's "Biography" of Bob Dylan in August 2000. David Blume died in the spring of 2006. Hester still owns and operates the dance club, and continues to perform and tour.

[edit] Sources

The Washington Post, "The Ballad of Carolyn Hester: Four Decades After Stardom Passed Her by, She's Singing Her Heart Out," January 12, 2005, pg. C1, by Bob Thompson