Carolyn Hester - Essential Folk Masters (2010)

A member of the 1960s folk revival, Carolyn Hester was a singer, guitarist, and political activist.

Like most performers in the early years of the scene, Hester played mostly traditional material, which she sang in a soprano voice that has earned her comparisons to Joan Baez and Judy Collins (though Hester was on the scene before either). SCARLET RIBBONS, her first album, appeared in 1957, and her self-titled sophomore effort, which included coffeehouse favorites like “House of the Rising Son,” was released in 1960. She invited a young, unknown Bob Dylan to play harmonica on her third album. After an unsuccessful marriage to Richard Fariña and a pass on an offer to join a commercial folk trio (which later became Peter, Paul & Mary), Hester continued to record and perform, experimenting with folk-rock, Tex-Mex, and psychedelic music into the early ‘70s. She took a 16-year hiatus from recording, but returned in the mid-‘90s with albums that harked back to her folk roots.