Carolyn Hester

Subject: Carolyn Hester
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 02 Oct 00 - 05:23 PM

Folk icon from the 50s until the present, Carolyn Hester, will be our guest on the TRADITIONS program.A two part interview with music is scheduled for Sunday October 8 and October 15.

Carolyn will be sharing her history, her giving Bob Dylan his first recording opportunity, and a host of other items about the world of folk music---then and now.

TRADITIONS airs on Sundays fromn 3-6 PM Eastern Time on WFDU 89.1 FM (Teaneck NJ). We also broadcast on the web:www.wfdu.fm. That is also our website.

TRADITIONS is hosted by Ron Olesko and Bill Hahn.

Bill

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: GUEST,Tiger
Date: 03 Oct 00 - 07:57 AM

I remember when Carolyn Hester first appeared. I went to the record store to buy an album and they assured me there was no such person. They were sure I had been misinformed and that I really wanted Charlton Heston.

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Oct 00 - 05:38 PM

I once saw her perform years ago, too many to mention. As a fellow Texan, it would be nice to drop in online and hear what she has been doing. Thanks for the heads-up.

Len

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 03 Oct 00 - 09:39 PM

I heard Carolyn at the Grant Park (Chicago) Folk Fest in 1989 -- I had already moved away by then, but had a Chicago conference, and made a point to come in early for this.

I hadn't heard of her before, but liked her so much I tracked down her vinyl, which was not easy. I think I finally got it from her personally. I bought it because I especially liked "Ascending woman"

Ascending woman is my name
And I'm on my way to another plane

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Oct 00 - 09:59 PM

One of my favorites from the sixties....After we got hooked through the usual "big" names, many of us were far more excited to discover the Carolyn Hesters, Hedy Wests, Pat Skys and so many others who took us back even further.

I was very disappointed to see no more of her on the Dylan 30th anniversary thing. Singing backup to Griffith was nice, but many of us could have used a full dose!

I'll be hoping for no net congestion and I'll be there.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From:
Date: 04 Oct 00 - 04:46 AM

I remember her having a classical sound on the guitar. I don't mean the music sounded classical, but the tone, phrasing, etc did.

Does anyone know if she actually played a nylon strung guitar?

Murray

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 04 Oct 00 - 06:26 PM

Glad to see all the nice comments about Carolyn. She is probably one of the warmest, interesting, and friendliest people I have had the honor---and I use the word appropriately--of having in conversation.

A lot of your questions will be answered in the two weeks we will be airing this visit---it took two weeks due to the ammount of interesting material and music. The guitar she uses, the Dylan tribute, and her thoughts of the current state of "fok" music.

My co-host, Ron Olesko, will be hosting week one and I will be on in week two.

Don't forget the time: Sun 3-6 PM Eastern Time.

WFDU 89.1 FM in the Tri State NY NJ CT area. On the web you can get us at: WWW.WFDU.FM.

Bill H

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Oct 00 - 10:24 PM

To be crystal clear:

Carolyn as in Lynn vs. Caroline as in fishing line, phone line, line of---.

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From:
Date: 07 Oct 00 - 03:32 AM

I hope you post a report here Bill. I am too far away to hear the radio station and my computer is too low-tech to use things like "Real Audio".

Murray

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: bflat
Date: 10 Oct 00 - 08:46 PM

I'm glad I had the opportunity to "tune in."

The interview was most interesting. Good music choosen for segue. Nice job. Will surly make time to hear the next installment.

bflat

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 14 Oct 00 - 06:27 PM

Just a reminder that Part II will be broadcast this Sun. 10/15/00. That is WFDU 89.1 FM in Teaneck NJ The TRADITIONS program is on from 3-6 PM ET. You can also get the show on the web: www.wfdu.fm

There are a few other surprises planned.

Bill Hahn WFDU Co Producer/Host TRADITIONS

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From:
Date: 16 Dec 00 - 05:28 AM

BillH. Did you ever find out what kind of guitar she played and whether she had classical training?

Murray

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: Sarah2
Date: 13 Jan 01 - 12:13 PM

Well, I was hunting for another thread and stubled onto this...

Bill, is she still using the guitar strap I made for her -- needlepoint, looks like stained glass? I haven't seen her in years, as the fire ants at Kerrville drove me away (severe reaction). Lovely, lovely lady.

Sarah

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: Willie-O
Date: 13 Jan 01 - 12:24 PM

That's kind of amusing to read, Sarah. I too had my first experience with Carolyn Hester, and with fire ants, at Kerrville (89, only time I've been there.)

Absolutely charming woman. Sold her an ice cream bar at the snack store.

Fire ants are another story. One that you have to experience firsthand if you're dumb and "show-me" like old Willie-O. I found it hard to comprehend that it is deeply unwise to sit on the ground in south Texas, until I tried it.

Yeee-OOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!! I must have looked an interesting sight.

Willie-O
Older, wiser in that particular area of experience.

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: Sarah2
Date: 13 Jan 01 - 12:38 PM

Willie-O,

Yeah, fire ants are one of the wonders of Science Run Amok. They've virtually destroyed the quail population in south Texas (ground nesters). And I have friends in Austin and Houston who tell me folk down there can no longer take babies out to play in the lawn for fear of the damned things.

One more reason for me to stay up in the panhandle -- it gets too cold up here for them...so far.

Sarah

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 18 Jan 01 - 02:21 PM

Ooooh, fire ants, yes. another reason i hated Miami. and they swarm up out of the ground when it rains. I STILL have little knobs on my legs, 12 years later.

Chorus of Janis Carper song:

Fire ants, fire ants,
Marching one by one;
fire ants, fire ants,
Isn't camping fun?

(Written after Kerrville)

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: GUEST,Bill Hahn
Date: 18 Jan 01 - 06:07 PM

Now that the thread is alive once more let me say that for those of you fortunate enought to be in the NYC area Carolyn and Tom Paxton will be making a joint appearance at the Bottom Line on SUnday 1/21. Two shows---4 PM and 7:30 PM.

A show like this will not come this way soon again----I'll ask about the guitar strap---Sarah.

By the way, if you are from the area the Bot Line # is 212 228 6300. Hope to see you there. Pray the snow stays away so we can play.

Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: GUEST,Sarah2 (at work)
Date: 18 Jan 01 - 11:16 PM

Thanks, Bill. If she's still wearing it, you'll doubtless know it without asking. It's fairly recognizable. But tell her hello from Amarillo, wontcha? Super lady, that...

Sarah

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: GUEST,Bill Hahn
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 05:45 PM

Sarah from Amarillo you asked if Carolyn was still wearing the guitar strap that you made for her.

As you requested I asked her---and yes she certainly is. She got really excited and enthused when I asked her and called everyone over to admire the beautiful needlepoint---some 30 years now she has used it.

The concert was phenominal---she was in great form and Tom Paxton was, as always, great. And, tdogether, they were new dynamic duo.

Two of the most talented and personable people I have had the pleasure of meeting, and the honor now of knowing.

Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: Sarah2
Date: 25 Jan 01 - 11:06 PM

Bill,

Two of my favorites of all time. She is one super lady. And if Tom Paxton wrote it, I want a copy -- and the chords, too! 'Specially his political stuff!

Glad she's still enjoying the guitar strap. And sorry I haven't been here -- real world interference right now: nursing me mum after cataract surgery, keeping my visiting sibling in line lest he "helpful project around the place" until I'm in the poorhouse, St Patrick's practice and design -- and the Mudcat Tour on the side. Oh, and that damned workplace, interfering with my social life. I'll be sporadic at best here for a while...rats: it's distressing to have to go cold turkey to overcome obsession.

Sarah

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 26 Jan 01 - 12:19 AM

MAG, I saw the reference to fire ants and was about to mention Janis' song, but you beat me to it. I recently found my old tape of "Camp Coho": five Seattle songwriters -- Janis Carper, Kat Eggleston, Heidi Muller, T.R. Ritchie, and Jill Kennon -- doing songs they'd written at or soon after Kerrville in, I believe, 1989, including "Fire Ants". It's a real gem.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: Carolyn Hester ....info?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 11:28 AM

I have been reading the new book "Positively Fourth Street", which is about Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Farina, and Richard Farina back in the 60's. It's quite a good book, and provides some fresh insights on the times of the "folkulous four".

I became intrigued with Carolyn Hester, a folksinger (apparently a very good one) from Texas who was married to Richard Farina for a while. She seems to have been an interesting character and a fine performer, who could have become a very big music star (like Baez) but didn't.

Does anyone know what became of her later on?

- LH

---

Messages from multiple threads combined.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 11:29 AM

relate

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 11:36 AM

Ah, very nice! Thank you, GUEST.

- LH

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester ....info?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 11:48 AM

http://www.carolynhester.com/

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester ....info?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 12:04 PM

Ah, yes, thanks again...

- LH

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester ....info?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 12:17 PM

...regarding CH, I refreshed the Swallow Song thread, too...LH

hg

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 01:08 PM

Hey Hawk......I assume you have the Dylan 30 year thing on tape??? Carolyn Hester sings backup harmony for what's her name on there. The girl from Texas, big star right now....did "Boots of Spanish Leather".......damn....can't remember her name......NANCI GRIFFITH!! (had to ask Karen)............Anyway, she sang backup on that one.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: Genie
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 03:46 PM

Here are links to a couple of songs from an early album (her first?)

Caupllito De Aleli

Black Jack Oak

---

Genie is about to lose her blue-click license. She needs to learn how to do them without an HTML editor.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 07:31 PM

One of my earliest memories of folk music on TV was seeing Carolyn Hester and Davy Graham both performing on the same episode of "Hootenanny" (Scottish TV series hosted by the Corrie Folk Trio and Paddie Bell).

I thought I had died and gone to heaven ....

Murray

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: BH
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 07:58 PM

In response to the query about what she is doing now. In my interview with this charming person she said that she is performing a bit again. Over the years she has been the owner and operator of a very popular "folk" dance club in the L A area.

She is happilly married to a wonderful gentlement who is also a musician and producer of music.

Bill Hahn

Subject: Carolyn Hester, House Of TheRising Sun
From: Genie
Date: 26 May 13 - 03:45 PM

You can find a number of recordings and videos of Carolyn Hester, some pretty recent, on You Tube.
This one is Carolyn, with her daughters Amy and Karla Blume, doing The House Of The Rising Sun.
The arrangement seems to differ a good bit from her recording on her eponymous album from ca. 1960 (maybe influenced by Dave Van Ronk's chord progression, which was adopted by Dylan and then by Eric Burdon).

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: Sir Roger de Beverley
Date: 27 May 13 - 03:15 PM

Carolyn's earliest recording were at the Norman Petty studio with Buddy Holly on guitar. How many people have recorded with both Holly and Dylan?

R

Subject: RE: Carolyn Hester
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 27 May 13 - 04:59 PM

Two tracks on the 1st album have Buddy Holly accompaniment. Other
tracks recorded at that time have been lost (one hopes actually
"misplaced" and may be recovered.....).

FYI - Carolyn's first album has been reissued on CD:

CORAL CRL 57143 SCARLET RIBBONS                LP 1957
JASMINE(UK) JASCD 259                         2-CD 2013 [CD1.1-12]
"George Atwood bass on Scarlet Ribbons, my dad had played harmonica, and Jerry Allison, Buddy's drummer, played brushes on a cardboard box"
Carolyn Hester
[Buddy Holly, acoustic guitar on Wreck of the Old 97, Scarlet Ribbons]
produced by Norman Petty
Program notes by Howard Cook

A1 Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair)(Jack Segal-Evellyn Danzig)
A2 I know where I'm goin'
A3 The Texan boys
A4 Danny Boy (Fred Weatherly)
A5 Ye Banks and Braes (Robert Burns)
A6 The Wreck of the Old Ninety-Seven
B1 Black is the color of my true love's hair
B2 The riddle song
B3 Lolly too dum
B4 Little Willie
B5 Hush-a-bye
B6 I wonder as I wander


Best wishes, Thomas.