Carolyn Hester Biography
Waco, Texas, USA. Hester spent her childhood in Austin and Dallas (her grandparents had been folk singers) and then she relocated to New York in 1956 to study acting with the American Theater Wing. In 1958 Hester left to sing in clubs in Cleveland and Detroit. Her first album was released for Decca Records' Coral subsidiary in 1958 when Hester was 21. It was produced by Norman Petty, Buddy Holly's manager, and Hester soon befriended both Petty and his charge. The record, containing purely traditional material, served as a springboard for performances on the New York folk network, as Hester became part of a new wave of acoustic talent who would dominate the 60s (Joan Baez attended an early concert, and Hester met Bob Dylan at an early show at the famed Gerde's Folk City). Tradition Records hosted her second album, the first of several to be titled simply Carolyn Hester, which was produced with label owners the Clancy Brothers. In the UK it was renamed Thursday's Child and released on Ember Records. It included several folk club staples of the period such as "House Of The Rising Sun" and "Go Away From My Window". After passing an audition at Columbia Records for John Hammond her second self-titled collection followed, featuring subsequent fellow Hammond signing Bob Dylan on harmonica, as well as guitarist Bruce Langhorne and Odetta bass player Bill Lee (father of film maker Spike Lee). To promote it she came to England, playing her first UK concerts at the Troubador. Taking a flat in Tregunter Road alongside new husband Richard Fariña, they became the first of a wave of American folk emigrates to base themselves in London. Rory McEwan then booked both for the Edinburgh Festival, but the marital relationship was already failing, despite the fact that Hester was concurrently helping type Farina's celebrated book, Been Down So Long, It Looks Like Up To Me. Back in the USA she became a regular on the Hullaballoo television series, and renewed acquaintances with Norman Petty following a second, less successful album for Columbia. She subsequently recorded two live albums for Petty's Dot Records, and in the 90s these remain the only Hester material still in print thanks to reissues by Bear Family Records. She continued to appear regularly at the Edinburgh Festival and by the late 60s her popularity in the UK outstripped domestic sales. This situation was exacerbated by her noble organisation of a singers' boycott of ABC television's Hootenanny show, following its refusal to allow Pete Seeger to perform after he was blacklisted as a communist. A second contract was then signed with Columbia but no releases were forthcoming, aside from a "best of" compilation. Although Hester remained a popular live attraction, her position in folk's hierarchy was gradually over-run by Joan Baez and Judy Collins. In the late 60s Hester embraced a rock-orientated direction with a group, the Carolyn Hester Coalition, but it was a largely unremarkable flirtation. She then abandoned music for a full decade while she brought up her children, though she continued to perform sporadically. She returned to a more active profile in 1982. In the 90s many were drawn to her back-catalogue via the testimony of long-term fan Nanci Griffith, who featured Hester on her Other Voices album and invited her to join her for her appearance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Her recent albums for the Road Goes On Forever label have been well received.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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