FESTIVAL-goers in Kendal should snap up the chance to see an extremely rare performance of a star-studded tribute to an unsung hero from the 1960s folk music scene.
Sunday will see The Karen Dalton Allstars taking to the stage, a band featuring the might of Simon Tong, former guitarist and keyboard player with legendary band The Verve and now playing alongside Blur's Damon Albarn in The Good, The Bad and The Queen, alongside up and coming singer Petra Jean Phillipson and a talented backing band.
The show will pay homage to the late Karen Dalton, who was instrumental in hip and happening Greenwich Village, New York, in the early Sixties, playing coffee houses alongside the master of singer-songwriting, Bob Dylan.
Tong, who said he was looking forward to returning to the Lakes, a place he remembers well from annual family holidays as a child, told The Westmorland Gazette: "Karen made a couple of albums but never really got famous, but over the years people like Nick Cave and Joanna Newsom have cited her as an influence. She also influenced the trip-hop scene and bands like Portishead.
"This show will be something a bit different. We played in London before Christmas and someone who was there asked us to come to this festival in Kendal. It will be nice to come back."
Petra Jean Phillipson said: "I was really pleased to be invited to perform at this festival. Karen Dalton had such an interesting story. She was a very fractured, delicate woman and had problems with anxiety.
"Bob Dylan used to play guitar for her and she was part of the beat generation, but there weren't many women out there at the time. She is such an important lady."
Aside from a possible performance at a festival in Norway, Sunday night's show at the Brewery Arts Centre is likely to be one of the only chances to see the performance for a long time, before those involved start working on their own projects. Don't miss it.
Daniel Orr
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