Dorothy Carter :: “Troubadour” - Drag City Records
Born and raised in New York City just prior to the Second World War, multi-instrumentalist and composer, Dorothy Carter, began playing the piano in her early youth before later attending Bard College in the city, the London Royal Academy and eventually relocating, again, to France, where she studied music at the Guildhall School Of Music. While conquering the esoteric realms of the past, present and future, Carter excelled in the quality manifestation of time traveling under sacred candle-lit seance sessions. While the slumbering strings echo from a not distant location, Carter’s music developed into this radical exploration into the more medieval elements of history and its violently rich culture of sound and sonic sorcery. Where the blade of a barbaric society meets the innocence of flesh, the late musician enlightened the masses with legendary talent and an iconically infused revival of her ultimate pursuit of a timeless tonality in the nature of folk music in all its eternal essence.
With a vast collection of instruments such as the zither, hammered-dulcimer, hurdy-gurdy and psaltery, Carter quickly established herself as an incredibly important figure in the world of psychedelic folk as well as the medieval music revival that found a new way of life throughout the 1960s and 1970s during its perplexed peak in popular music. Prior to recording her 1976 classic “Troubadour”, Carter returned to the states where she became an official member of the Central Maine Power Music Company with fellow musicians and artists Robert Rutman and Constance Demby in the vibrant community of Cambridge, Massachusetts in the early 1970s. Working with engineer and producers Mark Forman, Miles Siegel and Stephen Baer, Carter entered Studio B in Boston on the 200th anniversary of the country and, respectfully, laid to tape a historical representation of the sights and sounds of a masterpiece in all its perfection. Summoning the visceral vibrations of legendary new age, multi-instrumentalist, Constance Demby, Carter effortlessly wrestled with the peaceful hues of the occult and supernatural prowess of performance by recording perhaps one of the greatest atmospheric artifacts in the respected genre.
With numbers such as “The Morning Star”, the album’s epic opener “Troubadour Song”, “Tree Of Life”, “Shirt Of Lace” and countless others cycling through the ever expanding cosmos, “Troubadour” resides in the reflective pool of Massachusetts’ excitingly paranormal legacy, where its extraterrestrial echos can still be heard beyond the many protective moons guarding its everlasting orbital operation. Carter regularly performed with Robert Rutman's Steel Cello Ensemble, which persisted for many decades as the celestial composers eagerly established an eternally respected residency among an appreciating community of listeners and creative souls. But as time moved forward and so did the body, Carter eventually succumbed to an aneurysm and its complications from a stroke in the early 2000s. Survived by her children, Carter’s legacy transcends past just her career and creative output over the last half century, but in constant celebration as we reflect on the many teachings and blessings from her philosophy and cultural influence. Reissued for the very first time, Drag City properly visits the cosmic chambers of Carter’s debut masterpiece by bringing to light for a whole new generation of listeners, a collection of material that is both sophisticated in its sorcery soundscapes and tangible in the tonality of Carter’s lantern lit spell book of song and Dionysian dance.
