Saturday 7 September 2013

Valerie Carter - Just a Stone's Throw Away/Wild Child



Luminous

Valerie Carter is a great singer, and these first two albums released respectively in 1977 and 1978 present a fine mix of rock ballads, West Coast harmony, and funkier numbers – though that doesn’t quite reflect the breadth – and she is ably supported by the likes of Lowell George [having sung in Little Feat], Jackson Browne and James Taylor [singing Angry Blues with Lowell on JT's Gorilla, recently reviewed], just some of the musical luminaries she went on to support, as well as write for, over the next two decades without pursuing her own solo career – check out the list of album credits on Wikipedia: how impressive is that!


Her vocal is similar to and certainly sits comfortably with the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Laura Nyro and Rickie Lee Jones. My favourite of the two albums is her first, Just a Stone’s Throw Away, and there’s a sterling version of the Lowell George/John Sebastian Face of Appalachia – gorgeous vocal over banjo – with Lowell contributing to the writing of three other tracks with Carter.

Her next solo release wasn’t until The Way It Is in 1996, an album I have ordered today and look forward to hearing. 

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