Jackie-o Motherfucker - Something On Your Mind (Karen Dalton cover)

You haven’t got a thing to say
You’re feeling you want to run away
There’s no use trying anyway
I’ve seen the writing on the wall
Who cannot maintain will always fall

I love Karen Dalton’s voice. To think she only did covers and traditional songs throughout her career. Her life’s story is that of any tragic singer; she died too young. Drugs and alcohol use were a present force in her life and this was her Achilles’ heel. Dubbed “folk music’s answer to Billie Holiday” — a tag she reportedly detested, she was unable to attain success like her contemporaries during the folk revival of the ’60s. Many people thought she wasn’t really meant for her time. After the bleak sales of her second studio album, she drifted away from the music scene. By the early ‘90s she was living on the streets of New York and by 1993 she died homeless, aged 55.

Jackie-o-Motherfucker does a loose cover of one of her most popular song, Something On Your Mind. I think Alela Diane must have been influenced by Dalton. Alele’s second album, The Pirate’s Gospel, has a similar feel to Dalton’s music.