Karen Dalton

★★★★ Shuckin’ Sugar DELMORE RECORDING SOCIETY. CD/DL

Early Karen Dalton in pure folk milieu.

Few have made the leap from anonymity to posthumous legend as dramatically as Karen Dalton. In the almost 30 years since her death, after several collections, tributes and a documentary, she’s accumulated a dedicated fanbase. This latest release features her live, primarily at a Colorado coffeehouse, solo and with then-husband, singer-guitarist Richard Tucker. Her trademark 12-string and banjo are here, as is that voice that’s beguiled many who weren’t yet born when she died, a little rawer than it got later. True believers will be delighted with several tunes never previously heard performed by her: reefer anthem If You’re A Viper, country-blues classic In The Pines and the Blind Lemon Jefferson title track. While most are traditional and she’s in a folk milieu, Dalton transcended these labels, never sounding as if she were singing for audiences, but for her life.