Customer Reviews

Kathy & Carol

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I saw Kathy and Carol live at the Troubador in LA back in the day--probably 1965 or so--on a bill with Phil Ochs. I LOVED them and immediately bought their album and played it to death. It was my first introduction to shape-note singing, and I was awed by (Kathy? Carol?'s) cool autoharp that had removeable chord bars. This is a very fine album and long overdue for reissue. Their singing and playing is tasteful, beautiful, confident, and I could never understand why they didn't record more. Get this album!

I've been looking for this CD since the 70's when I was 13 yrs. old and some sweet old hippies down the dirt road gave me a stack of vinyl albums and I wore them out playing them over and over (since they were the only albums I'd ever owned!). One of the albums was Kathy & Carol and I loved the warbling harmonies with the minor keys and soulful haunting. The songs have played in my head all these many years and when I first saw this CD was released again at last, my eyes filled with tears of joy!!!

A full 40 years after its original release, this album sounds as fresh to me today as it did the first time I heard it 27 years ago. Gorgeous music is timeless indeed.

Although my taste in music runs to many different genres, I have had a special love of country music and folk music in particular for the past quarter century. In 1978, when I was first exposed to folk singers, a friend of mine who taught me much of what I know about folk pointed out the album Kathy & Carol in a used record store and said he highly recommended it. I purchased it with some reluctance since it was not only second-hand, the price tag reflected the then outrageous sum of $40. Besides the price, the tag also said the album was "very rare". I took it home, hoping I would not regret it. It was not the first or last time I took a chance on some music I wasn't familiar with.

The rest is, as they say, history. I was enthralled with Kathy & Carol from the very first time I heard it. The harmony vocals that pour from the sweet voices of these two young (20 year-old) girls spoke directly to something inside me, then and now. In the ensuing years, and after listening to this album literally hundreds of times, I have learned every note of every song on the album, and I have never tired of playing it.

Most of the songs deal with sorrow, lost love, death and hardship - which are standard themes in traditional folk music. I find the harmonies indescribably beautiful, and the lyrics to most of the songs still give me a thrill - even after the many times I've listened to them. It amazes me that some of these songs are hundreds of years old, yet perfectly describe the heartbreak of lost love, death and grief. One reason why this album is so good is that the sentiments expressed are both perennial and universal.

Although I know most of the words by heart, many people will find some of the lyrics puzzling, as most of these songs are hundreds of years old, and several of the words have become obscure with time. I had to look several words up in the dictionary, and the fact that I had no idea how to spell some of them did not make it any easier. For instance, in "The Blacksmith", it was pure luck that the word "billycock" turned out to be spelled exactly how it sounds (a billycock, by the way, was a style of men's hat popular in the 1600's, similar in design to a modern derby). And from "Lady Maisry" (my favorite song on the album) I really had to search to find out that a "bower" is "the area in a medieval castle where the lady and her household kept residence". In some instances I was not so lucky, such as (also in Lady Maisry) the reference to a corpse being carried in a funeral procession as a "foal". I have only been able to find this meaning in one dictionary; many dictionaries only contained the modern definition of "the young offspring of a horse". And I was unfamiliar with the word "oblation" (an offering or gift), which appears in the most beautiful verse of the shape-note hymn, "Brightest and Best". I had trouble finding it because my ears kept hearing the word "ovlation" - a word that does not exist. Brightest and Best, a Yuletide carol sung to the Star of Bethlehem, is one of the most beautiful Seasonal songs I have ever heard.

Because the subject matter of many of these songs is intensely sad, some people have expressed puzzlement as to why I like to listen to this music. Many years ago, when I was a jazz fan, I heard similar comments from people regarding my passion for the music of Billie Holiday. "But those songs are so sad, how can you bear to listen to them?" is a comment I've heard many times. My answer regarding Kathy & Carol (and this also applies to Billie for that matter) is that, for me, the ability of the singer to articulate the sentiment behind a lyric so perfectly and with such artistry is a thing of great beauty. My reaction to beauty is always joy, not sadness. These songs do not make me feel sad; quite the contrary, the singing of Kathy & Carol fills me with an inner peace and tranquility.

Kathy & Carol accompany themselves on the guitar and autoharp; there are no additional musicians or instruments. More than one song is sung a cappella.

Take a chance on this obscure gem, especially if your taste runs to non-commercial acoustic folk music, and discover the joy of Kathy And Carol.

If a more purely beautiful album came out of the 1960s folk revival, I can't imagine what it was. I owned the vinyl version long ago and gave it away to a friend who had done me a favor of sufficient magnitude that I did the unthinkable and turned over to him this beloved -- and even then hard to find -- recording. Thanks to Collectors' Choice, Kathy and Carol the artists are, and Kathy and Carol the record is, back with us.

So many things that seemed good at the time end up years later serving, sadly, only to tell us how little we knew back then. K&C, however, sound as wonderful as I remember them. It's those incredible voices blending in harmonies that the Carter Family would have admired. It is also the perfect selection of songs, all but one traditional, and the spare production which ensures that nothing gets in the way of the singing. "Carter's Blues" -- A. P. Carter's version of an old lyric folk song from England -- is almost too lovely. It's hard to listen to without tearing up, the melancholy sentiments heartbreakingly captured and communicated. There's "Fair Beauty Bright" and "Gold Watch and Chain" and "Sprig of Thyme" ... well, pretty much everything. The one nontraditional song (though based on the old "He Was a Friend of Mine"), Mark Spoelstra's "Just a Hand to Hold," is the most moving song I have ever heard about the death of a child, and quite unlike any other.

This is not just another excellent folk album. It's in a category of its own.

short and simple: this is long awaited treasure and unbelievable performance. if you like folk music and traditional songs you will fall in love with the ethereal harmonies and great accompaniments. A+ all around.