Sibylle Baier never really made an album. The German model and occasional actress was more interested in raising her children than self promotion. And to any fan of underground music, talent over hype is a welcome breath of fresh air.
Baier can be seen in Wim Wenders’ 1973 “Alice In The Cities” and her music can be heard in several other Wender’s productions. But the handful of songs she recorded by herself were all but unheard and forgotten until her son had them published some thirty years later. We can thank Orange Twin Records for the reissue (or in this case, first pressing).
Even today Sibylle shuns the spotlight and thinks it silly that people would pay any attention to her quaint home recordings. Perhaps her aversion to fame has kept the magic quality of these recordings intact.
Her voice somber and soothing, her nylon stringed guitar warm and cozy- if you listen to this record alone and in a quiet place, you can have your own singular hidden treasure experience:
I’ve been unable to find much info on Karen Dalton. She remains an enigma even in the all seeing eye of the internet. I can tell you, however, that she was once Bob Dylan’s favorite singer (if that means anything to you). She was one of the post-beat generation Greenwich Village folksters, before moving to Colorado.
I can tell you Karen was a heroin addict, and that she died (possibly from aids) in 1993. However none of these factoids can do anything to illuminate the beauty of her few recordings she left behind.
Her post-Billie Holiday voice quivers over tenor banjos to strange and hypnotic affects. Her twelve string sets a velvety base for her bluesy and tortured vocals.
One thing I can tell you unequivocally about Karen Dalton is that her music has changed my life for the better.
Harry Taussig played at the prestigious Texas music festival South By Southwest in 2013, despite not having recorded anything in 45 years. It’s ironic that the 1960s era of digging up lost blues legends and underground folk heroes now has some forgotten refugees of their own.
Here’s two cuts from Harry’s aptly titled 1965 album “Fate Is Only Once’’: