STUNNNNNING re-issue of American psaltry master and folk troubadour Dorothy Carter’s little-known 1978 masterpiece ‘Waillee Waillee’, a joint release between Palto Flats & Putojefe Records. A Laraaji and Neubauten collaborator who set a new standard at the intersection of medieval music and psych folk, Dorothy Carter infused her research into Celtic and Appalachian traditions with a giddy, almost subversive forward motion, reaching ethereal heights that are a total revelation to hear almost 50 years later, like some lost recording of Michael O’Shea, Karen Dalton and Laraaji in session.
‘Waillee Waillee’ was issued as a private press in 1978 on Carter’s own Celeste imprint and saw her expand on ideas she developed as a member of Bob Rutman’s avant-garde troupe Central Maine Power Music Company. His influence looms over ‘Waillee Waillee’ too, his home made instruments, including a steel cello and a bow chime, feature predominantly throughout.
To contemporary ears, it’s hard to escape the still-distinctive magic that characterises Carter’s work; her expertise with instruments from the psalterium family – the hammered dulcimer and the zither – and knowledge of numerous strands of baroque, classical, medieval court, Celtic folk and Hindustani music, elevate proceedings in a way that would later be echoed in many forms of avant-garde music. To illustrate the point, Carter was a formative influence on Laraaji, who contributes to this reissue’s liner notes too.
On the opening ‘The Squirrel is a Funny Thing…’ she spins rhythmic hammered twangs – eerily recalling Michael O’Shea’s self-built Zither – into cryptic, ornamental passages, singing with spirit and lapping phrases with impulsive, knowing accents. Carter forms words into near mantra, referencing medieval configurations and sounding like a bard and a priest all at once. On ‘Along the River’, she plays flute against a backdrop of oddly-tuned strings, bending the notes along spiritual ley lines. Her voice only emerges at the track’s final third, like angel song: self-assured but feral; passionate and prophetic.
Then there’s the elaborate patchwork ‘Summer Rhapsody’, a seven-minute gasp of ancient woodwind, seismic drones and celestial strings that vibrate across time. Carter ushers us into a distinctive, idiosyncratic place that feels like a precursor to the wave of New Weird America gear that emerged in the early 2000s, or the more recent era-fluxing experimentations of artists like Laura Cannell. She leans more fondly into European silhouettes on ‘Celtic Medley’, transferring signatures from Gaelic and Brythonic folk music into a different template altogether, highlighting the shared DNA between Celtic and traditional American forms like bluegrass and country. In Carter’s hands, the familiar is elevated to the heavens, blurred in bright sunlight.
‘Waillee Waillee’ is the first reissue of Carter’s music, and comes bundled with a 12-page booklet featuring excerpts of her manuscripts on the history of the dulcimer family of instruments, alongside drawings, images and sheet music. It’s an overwhelming package, shining a spotlight on an artist who has had an outsized but largely unseen influence on so much of what we appreciate today at the margins of traditional folk, new age and experimental music.
A total find and, without question, one of the most precious and distinctive archival discoveries of the year.
