Black, Karen – Dreaming of You: 1971-76 [LP + 7"] - New LP

Karen Black was boundless. An actor, singer, screenwriter, poet, and unyielding creative spirit, she was a prominent figure in the American New Wave, portraying a host of tender and labyrinthine women on screen. Her ability to submerge herself in each role marked her as a skilled character actor, one that translated into a real and imperfect person, not a polished emblem of Hollywood. In her best-suited and most vulnerable performances, she sang. Amid her meteoric rise, Black also wrote and recorded a host of original songs, many with two of the era’s most prestigious producers, Bones Howe and Elliot Mazer.

Co-produced by Cass McCombs and meticulously restored from the original tapes (including six of Howe’s recordings), Karen Black’s Dreaming of You (1971-1976) gathers for the first time the best of her recordings: 15 tracks that are a holistic depiction of her dreamy, introspective and earnest musical identity. Recalling the everywoman quality of Judy Collins and the quiet mystery of Billie Holiday, Black largely sings over simple acoustic guitar strumming, her voice a beacon amid tales of fantasy and heartache. Her range swings from fluttering highs to earthen lows. When she wasn’t on set, she scrawled hundreds of poems and lyrics, and set them to acoustic guitar or piano. As with acting, for Black songwriting was a study in confession and in character. She often completed multiple takes of a song exploring that relationship, changing her tone, phrasing or cadence in each. Black’s love of singing was a throughline in her acting career. Her breakthrough role in Five Easy Pieces (1970) was as small-town waitress and aspiring country singer Rayette, girlfriend of Jack Nicholson’s lost and philanderous rich kid—Bobby Dupea.