View basket “Imaginary People” has been added to your basket. Troubadour Dorothy Carter SKU: DC908 Barcode: 0781484090816 26.00 £26.00 Genre: Folk Label: Drag City Released Date: 30th August 2024 Buying Format: 1LP Out of stock Back Order Add to your Wishlist Description Product Info Drag City present the first official reissue of Dorothy Carter’s 1976 album debut, her folk-music exegesis, ‘Troubadour’. In her lifetime, Dorothy, a self-made traveling musician and folklorist, brought forth masterful evocations on hammered dulcimer and psaltery from a myriad of times and places. Her music was played, produced and sold outside of that era’s mainstream music distribution. It’s been 20 years since Dorothy’s passing – but thanks to last year’s reissue of her second album, ‘Waillee Waillee’ (1978), and this edition of ‘Troubadour’, her music is surging forward ever more powerfully. 2035 will mark the centennial of her birth; the mythos and arcana she pursued in relative obscurity is now inspiring an audience larger than Dorothy ever knew. At the time of that centennial, some will, no doubt, look back to the good old days of the early 20s, when they first heard her music. Others, like ‘Troubadour’ reissue producer Eric Demby, can look back to a childhood spent off the grid: the early 1970s in rural Maine, and later on, in Boston – wherever his freewheeling father brought the family, at one point or another, there too was Dorothy, as she lived and breathed, playing her hammered dulcimer. Her presence was always friendly and warm, yet ‘ethereal’ – her mind far away, her focus seemingly deep within the music, the instruments and the world from which they’d come. As for the world from which she came: following a childhood spent around New England, Dorothy travelled abroad for her higher education. She found herself in the late 1950s in Mexico, intent on becoming a nun at the Cuernavaca monastery. Instead, she fell in with a group of expats including David Demby (Eric’s father), his soon-to-be-wife Constance (her moment of New Age musical breakthrough still three decades hence) and aspiring artist and musician Bob Rutman. These were her people, looking for their place in the world. From Mexico City, they made it back up to New York, to Greenwich Village, where Rutman opened an art and ‘happenings’ gallery while Dorothy delved deep into the mystic things of traditional music and sounds, living the bohemian life while bringing up two dearly loved children with her itinerant lifestyle. As the 60s became the 70s, Eric recalls, “She was always coming from somewhere or on her way somewhere else, transporting instruments and folklore from Eastern Europe, Appalachia, and beyond that felt ancient and unearthed, which she would channel into our universe.” The early 70s found everyone living up on the farm up in rural Maine; it was here that Rutman, Constance, Dorothy and some others formed Central Maine Power Company, a troupe of almost feral improvisers playing on a combination of self-made and found instruments, with live video feedback to boot. Self-documentation wasn’t on their minds; simply being was enough. And so they were for several years, playing at planetariums around the northeast and even MoMA and the nascent World Trade towers. In 1976, Dorothy had been playing music for decades, but had yet to record any of it. That year, she went to Cambridge’s Studio B with Rutman and friend Steve Baer at the console. Constance and Sally Hilmer accompanied her. The performances captured there were released later that year as Troubadour. In addition to hammered dulcimer and psaltery, Dorothy played the flute and sang. She chose songs from all over: Appalachian folk tunes, old and ancient psalms and hymns, Scottish, Irish, French and Israeli melodies, with a few of her own songs for good measure. The songs flow together effortlessly under Dorothy and friends’ hands in a syncretic space that we can identify today as a garden of world musics – a highly energized, alternately meditative and proselytic recital whose vitality has only burgeoned in the decades since it appeared. As it should be – the music of Dorothy Carter is akin to a portal, linking her and us with the eternal. This edition of ‘Troubadour’ reproduces the original album package, adding an insert adorned with additional photos of Dorothy and her collection of instruments, as well as notes from Eric Demby exploring the era – his childhood – from a vantage point of some 50 years. This reissue is a long-held family dream come true, and it is dedicated in loving memory to Bob Rutman, Constance Demby, David Demby and Dorothy Carter. Artist Dorothy Carter Genre Folk Label Drag City Buying Options 1LP Format 1LP Condition New Country UK Track Listings Troubadour Song Binnorie Troubadour Songs on the Psaltery Make a Joyful Sound Lark in the Morning Balinderry Tree of Life Visiting Song The King of Glory The Morning Star Ukrainian Carol The Cuckoo Masquerade Shirt of Lace Share this On Facebook On Twitter Via Email More from Folk View Product Quick View Robbie Basho Land of Our Fathers – Rarities 1967-1983 Folk | Gnome Life Records | 1LP Released 27th September 2019 £21.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Robbie Basho Land of Our Fathers – Rarities 1967-1983 £21.00 Genre: Folk Label: Gnome Life Records SKU: HON040LP Formats: 1LP Released Date: 27th September 2019 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Faun Fables Light Of A Vaster Dark Folk | Drag City | 1LP Released 25th November 2010 £14.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Faun Fables Light Of A Vaster Dark £14.00 Genre: Folk Label: Drag City SKU: DC371 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 25th November 2010 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Shelagh McDonald Album Folk | Music On Vinyl | 180g, 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 31st January 2020 £22.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Shelagh McDonald Album £22.00 Genre: Folk Label: Music On Vinyl SKU: MOVLP2597 Formats: 180g, 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 31st January 2020 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Nearly New View Product Quick View Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Dirt, Silver & Gold Americana / Country | Liberty Records | 3LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released 28th April 2022 £20.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Dirt, Silver & Gold £20.00 Genre: Americana / Country Label: Liberty Records SKU: nn241417 Formats: 3LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released Date: 28th April 2022 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket View Product Quick View David John Morris Monastic Love Songs Folk | Hinterground Records | 1LP Released 21st May 2021 £19.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations David John Morris Monastic Love Songs £19.00 Genre: Folk Label: Hinterground Records SKU: HINT003LP Formats: 1LP Released Date: 21st May 2021 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket View Product Quick View Josephine Foster There are Eyes Above Folk | Fire Records | 10", EP/Mini Album Released 28th October 2022 £19.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Josephine Foster There are Eyes Above £19.00 Genre: Folk Label: Fire Records SKU: FIRELP423 Formats: 10", EP/Mini Album Released Date: 28th October 2022 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Frightened Rabbit Pedestrian Verse Folk | Atlantic | 1LP Released 22nd April 2022 £22.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Frightened Rabbit Pedestrian Verse £22.00 Genre: Folk Label: Atlantic SKU: 0190296350542 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 22nd April 2022 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Joan Baez Diamonds And Rust In The Bullring Folk | Analogue Productions | 180g, 1LP Released 16th February 2015 £38.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Joan Baez Diamonds And Rust In The Bullring £38.00 Genre: Folk Label: Analogue Productions SKU: AAPF080 Formats: 180g, 1LP Released Date: 16th February 2015 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Trees On the Shore Folk | Earth Recordings | 1LP Released 21st October 2022 £21.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Trees On the Shore £21.00 Genre: Folk Label: Earth Recordings SKU: EARTHLP035B Formats: 1LP Released Date: 21st October 2022 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Nearly New View Product Quick View John Kirkpatrick & Sue Harris The Rose Of Britain’s Isle Folk | Topic Records | 1LP Released 13th June 2014 £8.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations John Kirkpatrick & Sue Harris The Rose Of Britain’s Isle £8.00 Genre: Folk Label: Topic Records SKU: NN70112 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 13th June 2014 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket See more in Folk Start again
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