Karen Dalton is a folk and blues artist from the late 60’s and early 70’s. She was born in Enid, Oklahoma July 19, 1937 and passed away March 19, 1993 at the age of 55. She led what was described by the people around her as a troubled life, which lead to a dependence on drugs. She was already married twice by the time she was 21 and faced many issues dealing with custody of her children in combination with her drug habit. Her music is the very definition of heartbreaking beauty.

Her music has been celebrated by many well-known artists such as Bob Dylan and Nick Cave, yet her music was never very successful. She only released two albums: It’s So Hard To Tell Who’s Going To Love You The Best and In My Own Time. It’s not to late to discover her music as her past albums have been re-released and a new compilation of previously unreleased home recordings was released earlier this year entitled, 1966. “Reason To Believe” is one of the tracks on 1966. It perfectly exemplifies Dalton’s raspy blues styled vocals that are able to deliver an emotional response from the listener and really display the depressing desperation of the lyrics. The rawness of the home recording and simplicity that goes along with it makes her vocals and lyrics feel all the more emotional, it really can not be stressed enough how impacting her music can be and how unbelievable it is that she never found any kind of major success with her talent.