From the archives: Recalling Austin folk singer Carolyn Hester and her ties to Bob Dylan
"She would later move to Greenwich Village and make a bit of a name for herself. A few years ago, I recalled Carolyn's great voice, and located her in Los Angeles. I was later able to chat with her at a gathering of folk music people in Virginia. Today she's in her late eighties."
When the biographical movie about Bob Dylan, "A Complete Unknown," opened, Bergeron recalled Hester as a youth and later in life.
"Carolyn had an interesting connection with Dylan: She asked him to play harmonica on an album session," Bergeron wrote, "and apparently it was there that he met John Hammond, who signed Dylan to Columbia Records."
News to me.
More From the Archives: From the Statesman archives: Walsh family keeps popping up in compelling Austin history
Born in Waco on Jan. 28, 1937, Hester spent much of her youth in Austin. The folk music revival that populated coffee shops and college campuses across the country during the late 1950s and early 1960s, embraced her as the "Texas Songbird" or "Queen of the New York Folk Singers."
Norman Petty produced her first album in 1957. She helped launch Gerde's Folk City, a key West Village music venue, in 1960.
In 1961, Hester asked Dylan to appear on her third album for Columbia Records. It was his first on-the-record studio recording.
Hester turned down a chance to join Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey, who instead drafted Mary Travers to form the super-folk group known as Peter, Paul and Mary.
It might have instead been Peter, Paul and Carolyn.
A quick check reveals that a couple of dozen Hester recordings, including reissues of her early work, are still available.
The American-Statesman archives show that Austin did not forget Hester — or Hester, Austin — after she moved on to folk glory in Greenwich Village and beyond in the mid-1950s.
Here are a few samples reports about her return visits:
June 18, 1966: "New Bag of Tricks: Carolyn Hester Back in Town" — "In the 11 years since she left her home town to become a full-time professional folk singer, Carolyn Hester has come home six times to perform in concert. In Austin for a four-night stint at the Eleventh Door where she opened Thursday night, Hester packed the house with a whole new bag of tricks. In answers to requests, there were some famous songs so well identified with the auburn-haired singer-guitarist composer, songs like 'Yarrow'' from Scotland and 'That's My Song,' but for the most part Miss Hester sang new songs. Somewhere, somehow, along the way, Hester has come across a blues influence which is the most subtle and yet most exciting new development. The new blues nuances in her oft-performed 'Summertime' were enough to make your hair stand on end."
More From the Archives: From the Statesman archives: April 1961 wildfire devastated Davenport Ranch
Sept. 14, 1969: "Folk Concert Lineup Adds Carolyn Hester Coalition" — Sporting a new electric look, former Austinite Carolyn Hester will return to her home town as one of the headliners of a folk-oriented concert at Municipal Auditorium. Internationally known for the past decade as a performer of traditional and contemporary folk songs, Miss Hester has swung recently into the folk-rock column. Her backup in this vein comes from a band led by her husband, Dave Blume, an accomplished instrumentalist who plays bass, piano, organ and vibes. The Carolyn Hester Coalition has recently released an album on the Metromedia label, making it the eighth nationally circulated LP for Miss Hester."
Aug. 24, 1973: "Carolyn Hester Returning to Austin for Folk Concert" — In her first hometown concert appearance in a number of years, Carolyn Hester will come back to Austin to appear in concert with Peter Yarrow, Allen Damron, the Royal Light Singers and the Bluegrass Ramblers in 'An Evening from the Kerrville Folk Festival.' During the 1960s, Miss Hester also returned to Austin to appear in concert with Gordon Lightfoot, Joan Baez, Godfrey Cambridge, several of Rod Kennedy's KHFI-FM Summer Music Festivals, and for three appearances at the old Chequered Flag folk club on Lavaca."
For more insight into Hester's career and personal links to Austin, see the late Margaret Moser's profile, "Double-Barreled Beautiful," which was published in the Austin Chronicle on Dec. 19, 2008.
Please send your tips and questions about Austin past to mbarnes@statesman.com.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin loved Carolyn Hester, but what happened to the folk singer?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Former NASCAR Driver Danica Patrick Reacts to Sydney Sweeney Ad Backlash
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Former NASCAR and IndyCar driver Danica Patrick gave her take on the Sydney Sweeney controversy stemming from the actress's American Eagle ad campaign. Sweeney's commercials are perceived by some as coded with racism and eugenics because of a play on words regarding "jeans" and "genes." Patrick posted a story on her Instagram account on July 30, reading, "Hilarious. Can anyone tell me what's wrong with the new AE ads?! Very confused." Also, she shared a video from content creator Kaylor Betts, which addressed the controversy. Danica Patrick looks on from the drivers parade prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Mexico at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on October 27, 2024 in Mexico City, Mexico. Danica Patrick looks on from the drivers parade prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Mexico at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on October 27, 2024 in Mexico City, Mexico. Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images "We have to boycott American Eagle," Betts said in the video playfully. "If you haven't heard of this yet, brace yourself. This is a trigger warning. You're not going to believe it. They had Sydney Sweeney in one of their ads. And if you don't know Sydney, she's a white girl." Patrick found humor in the controversy surrounding Sweeney's ad, but the temperature has been much higher online, with people both attacking and defending the actress. Why are people upset about Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle collaboration? Sweeney's campaign with American Eagle is titled "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans." While on its face the title seems harmless, people claim the commercials refer to the "Euphoria" star's genetics as a white, blue-eyed American in a way that is coded with references to Nazism or white supremacy. "My body's composition is determined by my genes," Sweeney said as the video pans her entire body. "Hey, eyes up here." "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color," Sweeney says in another ad. "My jeans are blue." Sydney Sweeney x American Eagle, oh my god. — Sydney Sweeney Daily (@sweeneydailyx) July 24, 2025 Considering the backlash, many expected American Eagle to pause the collaboration, but Ashley Schapiro, the brand's vice president of marketing, said that the campaign was meant to be provocative. "During a Zoom call with Sydney, we asked the question, 'How far do you want to push it?' Without hesitation, she smirked and said, 'Let's push it, I'm game,'" Schapiro wrote in a LinkedIn post. "Our response? 'Challenge Accepted.' Infusing our own personal cheeky energy and making us as we envisioned how the world would experience the launch. "A desire to stretch beyond anything we had done before. The ideas kept building. The stunts topping themselves. Exploring media innovation that could feel like it was invented just for Syd's Jeans?"
Boston Globe
3 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Revising the reputation of the most reviled man in rock 'n 'roll history
He wasn't American. Born in the Netherlands, in 1909, he twice stowed away on ships sailing to the United States (the first time he got sent back) and never became a US citizen. Colonel Tom Parker, left, and Elvis Presley on the set of "Wild in the Country." © Graceland Archives True, he was show business, and a manager. But he wasn't rock 'n' roll, which was problematic since his most celebrated client was Elvis Presley. It was their relationship that made Parker a legend. More to the point, it was Parker's management that helped neuter Presley artistically. Or so conventional wisdom has it. Advertisement That view might be a further example of Parker not being as he seemed. In his new book, 'The Colonel and the King,' Peter Guralnick shows a Parker far more complex and creative than commonly understood. Yes, the bald, rotund, cigar-chomping Parker looked the part of the onetime carny he'd been: more folk villain than folk hero. Yet he was also much more than that, a latter-day Gatsby, a classic case of American self-invention – as was Presley. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Each of them believed in the other,' Guralnick said in an interview last month. 'Each of them believed there were no limits to what the two of them could achieve together.' Colonel Tom Parker, left, Elvis Presley, and Ed Sullivan. © Graceland Archives Guralnick, 81, knew Parker. He also knew Sam Phillips, who discovered Presley. He's written biographies of Phillips, the singer Sam Cooke, and, most famously, a two-volume life of Presley. Of the first volume, 'Last Train to Memphis,' Bob Dylan said, 'This book cancels out all others.' A revisionist view of Parker from someone else might make readers shake their heads. From Guralnick, it promises to open their eyes. Advertisement On Wednesday, Guralnick will be in conversation at the Cambridge Public Library with his friend Peter Wolf, of J. Geils Band fame. Admission is free, but Last month, Guralnick sat at the dining-room table in the 18th-century house where he and his wife, Alexandra, have lived since 1971 and talked about the new book, half of which is a standard biography and half a collection of Parker's letters. From left to right, Peter Guralnick, Colonel Tom Parker, and Sam Phillips at Parker's 80th birthday party. Sally Wilbourn/courtesy © Peter Guralnick Q. The two most reviled figures in rock 'n' roll history, whether fairly or not, are Yoko Ono and the Colonel. A. Sure, okay, absolutely. Q. Do you think you're going to catch a lot of flak from people who'll see you as an apologist for him? A. The likelihood is that I will. I'm not trying to dictate what their conclusions will be, but I think if they read the book and they leave themselves open to seeing the truth of what lies there in the pages then I hope they'll change their minds some. Colonel Tom Parker, left, and Elvis Presley on the set of Presley's first movie, "Love Me Tender." AP Photo Q. The book didn't begin as a biography. A. It evolved, in a sense, from a book that was going to be a book of letters, 30 years ago, and it never occurred to me to do a biography and that the letters would provide an entry point. Q. What was the motivation for the book in that first stage? Advertisement A. Alexandra and I get into the [Graceland] archives. We're there amidst all these trunks, travel trunks, you know, the trunks every trouper would carry on the road, and these battered old file cabinets. And we see these letters that he's written, from every stage of his life. Our reaction was immediate: This is not the Colonel that people think they know. I said to Jack Soden [head of Elvis Presley Enterprises], we've got to do a book of Colonel's letters. Then I proposed it to Colonel. 'You're a great letter writer,' I told him. 'I know I am.' he said. Q. 'Last Train to Memphis' came out a few years before he died. Do you know if he read it, and if so -- A. Oh, yeah, he read the book carefully. He talked to me about it. He had all these ideas for how I could market it. A review came out in the Los Angeles Times that I wouldn't call a rave, but it was a lot of space, and he said, 'How did you get them to run that big an advertisement?' Peter Guralnick in his West Newbury home. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Q. What do you think he would have thought of this book? A . Oh, he'd wag his finger at me, 'You should not have written anything if you didn't know how it was completely.' And I'd say back to him, as I did in life [ laughing] , 'But, Colonel, if you'd told me how it was then I would have a perspective on how it was exactly. But you can't expect me not to write about something simply because you withhold the information.' Overall, I think he would be very pleased, because he took himself seriously and he recognized that he couldn't make the claims for himself that I made. Advertisement Q. An important point to clarify: It's 'Colonel' not 'the Colonel.' A. Right, Colonel took the place of his first name, although he was 'Tom' to many of his old friends. If you want to reference the dignity of his position it's 'the Colonel.' But for Colonel there was no dignity to the position. He referred to himself again and again as a phony colonel and laughed about it. At the same time, although he carried himself with great élan , dignity, whatever, there was also insecurity. So I think to some extent having people call him by this title [countered that] but it did not outweigh the sense of extreme irony that he felt at the title and at the foolishness of the title. Colonel Tom Parker, c. 1955. Keystone Features/Q. The Colonel business helped give him a persona, and the humorousness of the title, the foolishness of it, furthered that persona. A. Absolutely. Colonel was a fabulator. He was a mythmaker. That was part of his creative bent. He was an extremely creative person, if not in the forms that you think of ordinarily. He spent his whole life developing the persona -- you know, the way he looks, the way he acts. Throughout the industry, he was taken very seriously, but it served his purpose to say, I've made up this persona, I've cast myself in this role, it saves me all this time. Colonel didn't believe in an afterlife. He didn't believe in organized religion. He didn't believe in salvation, I think. He believed in process, and that's what he was caught up in, the process. Advertisement Q. He believed in Elvis -- A. He totally believed in Elvis. Q. -- but he didn't believe in rock 'n' roll, and his not believing in rock 'n' roll is a lot of what people hold against him and why they see him as ultimately having betrayed the promise of Elvis. A. He believed in Elvis as a figure in the firmament of show business. He believed in show business. He loved show business. With Elvis, he saw someone for whom there were no limits, and it was because of both Elvis's creative imagination and his own. And I think that's something they shared. I think he would have seen a belief in rock 'n' roll or any one thing as being a limiting factor. But I'll go back to what you said. I don't think anybody saw Colonel in the way that he came to be seen after Elvis's death until probably the late '60s. I think until that time he was [considered] an entertaining sideshow. It was when people began to perceive Elvis as stumbling. That took place, really, in the 70s, but before then there were signs of it. Q. A. The movies, but most of all it just -- he was not Elvis. And it was at that point that Colonel. . . . You know, you could say he deserved the blame, but he was prepared to take the blame. Q. If you loved Elvis but you didn't love what he was presently doing, you could blame the Colonel. A. Yes, yeah. Q. You've done four major biographies, two of people you never met, Elvis and Sam Cooke, and two of people you knew, Sam Phillips and Colonel. Was there a difference? Advertisement A. It's not that different, for me, whether you know the person or you don't know the person. How well do you ever know anybody? Was it [the French novelist] TOM HANKS as Colonel Tom Parker in Warner Bros. Pictures' drama 'ELVIS.' Hugh Stewart Q. Tom Hanks played Colonel in A. John Goodman could. Tom Hanks could be cast [again]; he'd just need different direction. When I spoke to the guy who read the audiobook, I said, 'You want to get a sense of whimsicality. You want to get a sense of self-amusement.' It's not that that's the whole thing, by any means. There are plenty of sober moments in the book. But Colonel, you know, was so playful. Sam Phillips said to me [when Guralnick was writing his biography], 'I just want it to be another swinging day at the fair.' And, you know, that just seemed so perfect. This is even more applicable to Colonel's story. It's another swinging day at the fair. Interview has been edited and condensed. Mark Feeney can be reached at
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
America's fascination with the kiss cam: For better or worse, it's here to stay
'Are you not entertained?' Russell Crowe's Maximus famously bellowed to the Colosseum crowd in the 2000 film 'Gladiator.' But for decades, kiss cams have been posing a different question to U.S. sports fans and concertgoers: 'Are you not the entertainment?' Whether lighthearted distraction or comic relief, the ubiquitous arena and stadium feature is as American as apple pie — or at least as American as baking an apple pie and posting it on social media. Live competition and performance offer us communal experience on a massive scale, but they also offer a chance to make memories and — with the aid of kiss cams — to become part of the entertainment ourselves. For a few back-to-back moments, as the camera zeroes in on its various targets, fans watch with curiosity, anticipation, excitement and maybe even self-conscious dread. 'These events are epic, nostalgic, and for some even narcissistic,' said Adam Resnick, founder of 15 Seconds of Fame, a Los Angeles-based company whose app allows participating fans featured on in-venue video boards like kiss cams to download and share the footage as a digital souvenir. The origins of the kiss cam are frustratingly foggy but Resnick and others agree they burst onto sports scenes in the 1980s, in the years after sports franchises began introducing increasingly massive color video screens at ballparks and stadiums. Designed to fill breaks in the action and typically set to cheesy pop ballads, the kiss cam was a major innovation that shifted the focus from courts and fields into the stands. The feature is pretty much a slam dunk, with the camera's roving eye picking out random pairs of people in the stands who may or may not be actual couples — and therein lies part of the fun. Reactions are broadcast on the venue's giant video boards: If they kiss, the crowd cheers, while refusals draw playful jeers or laughter. "We love love," said Pepper Schwartz, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Washington in Seattle. When couples oblige, she said, "it's a feel-good feeling that transfers from one person to another and makes us optimistic." Kiss cams are cheap entertainment designed to keep audiences engaged when they could easily check out, said Joseph Darowski, an assistant professor of English at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. 'The energy of the live crowd is incredibly important, and the kiss cam helps to prevent it from dying down,' said Darowski, co-author of 'Survivor: A Cultural History,' a book that in part explores the rise of reality TV. 'Sporting events are not just about the game being played. It's the entire entertainment experience.' Any additional theatrics are generally a bonus — at least for the audience. But as illustrated by the now infamous July 16 incident at a Coldplay concert in Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, that's not always the case for the featured individuals. When reactions tell the story It was the shot broadcast around the world – the TikTok'd footage of a couple at a Coldplay concert caught mid-cuddle. 'Either they're having an affair, or they're just very shy,' Coldplay singer Chris Martin quipped after seeing the video from the stage. The video of the July 16 incident at Gillette Stadium has received more than 129 million views on TikTok alone. The viral moment and its professional and personal fallout, Schwartz said, prompted reactions ranging from amusement and fascination to, for those who've been involved in similar circumstances, schadenfreude and relief. But it wouldn't have unfolded the way it did without the kiss cam. The couple seen on the screen "could have saved themselves from worldwide derision had they waved and looked like, 'This is no big deal,'" Schwartz said. "But they took the second instinct, which was to flee. And that was the funny one." 'It could have been a vanilla, fleeting moment,' Resnick agreed. 'However, their reaction told a story." The episode illustrated how kiss cams have provoked occasional embarrassment and controversy since their debut. In addition to outing potential infidelities, their use in the past has been accused of pressuring unwilling participants to take part and shamed for promoting homophobia by showing same-sex couples for laughs. It also showed the hazards of baring private matters in public in the age of kiss cams, smartphones and social media. 'The expectation of privacy at a public event has never existed, and today, with camera ubiquity, it's preposterous for anyone to take that position,' Resnick said. More often, though, kiss cams offer those attending live events the chance to score a cameo in their own experience, claiming part or even all of those 15 seconds of fame once foretold for all of us. The power of those moments, Resnick said, lies in their organic nature. 'Authenticity can't be staged in real time,' he said. 'It resonates in the social zeitgeist.' Kiss cams 'an important metric' of acceptance The kiss cam's evolution hasn't been without its stumbles. In 2015, Syracuse University discontinued its kiss cam feature after a letter to the local newspaper cited a pair of troubling instances at the football team's game against Wake Forest. Steve Port of Manlius, N.Y., wrote that the kiss cam segment had twice featured young women who expressed unwillingness to participate but were forced to anyway, either by their male counterpart or by surrounding students. Meanwhile, a dozen or so years have passed since some major league sports franchises were accused of promoting homophobia by using kiss cams to poke fun at other teams. In those cases, after featuring a series of smooching male-female couples, the kiss cam segments ended by focusing on two of the home team's rival players, or even fans – suggesting they might kiss, and that doing so would be comedic. As a fan of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars complained after such a segment in a 2013 letter to team owner Shahid Khan, initially reported by Outsports: 'Hilarious, right? No, and the message is clear. Jaguars are heterosexual and approved. The opponent is 'gay,' disapproved and the butt of a crude joke.' A year earlier, pitcher Brandon McCarthy of Major League Baseball's Oakland A's had similarly condemned the practice after a game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. 'They put two guys on the 'Kiss Cam' tonight,' McCarthy posted on the social platform now known as X. 'What hilarity!! (by hilarity I mean offensive homophobia). Enough with this stupid trend.' Later, McCarthy — now sporting director for the USL Championship's Phoenix Rising FC — told the San Francisco Chronicle: "If there are gay people who are coming to a game and seeing something like that, you can't assume they're comfortable with it. If you're even making a small group of people ... feel like outcasts, then you're going against what makes your model successful." Before long, franchises were striving to be more inclusive, and in 2015, MLB's New York Mets told the Huffington Post they would no longer feature opposing players in their kiss cam segments; that same year, the Dodgers included a gay couple in its kiss cam. 'Kiss cams are an important metric in measuring how acceptable certain people are in a given community,' said Stephanie Bonvissuto, an adjunct assistant professor of women's and gender studies at Hunter College and Brooklyn College, both part of the City University of New York system. In early 2017, the Ad Council's 'Love Has No Labels' campaign produced a commercial featuring kiss cam footage from that year's NFL Pro Bowl in Orlando, Florida, where 49 people had been killed seven months earlier in a mass shooting at gay nightclub Pulse. 'Kiss Cams have been a part of sports culture for years,' the opening text read, but at that game, it continued, they 'became part of something bigger.' The images showed pairs of individuals, outlined by a heart, broadcast on Camping World Stadium's giant screens. Friends were featured. So, too, were same-sex and interracial couples. Then the camera zoomed in on two women in the stands, one of them wearing a shirt reading 'Orlando survivor.' The two turned and kissed, to the crowd's delight. Still, Bonvissuto said it's still rare to see LGBTQ couples featured on kiss cams beyond Pride Night events. While cautioning that she hasn't seen any statistics on such representation, she said the footage she's viewed largely features white, able-bodied and seemingly cisgender individuals. 'Kiss cams act as a means to exclude certain people,' she said. 'They're incredibly important in thinking about representation — who we're seeing and not seeing.' 'Socially acceptable' voyeurism But for the most part, kiss cams have offered streams of harmless fun, fodder for highlight and blooper reels and glimpses into the relationships of everyone from fellow citizens to celebrities and sitting and former U.S. presidents. Kiss cams, said BYU's Darowski, offer audiences the constant thrill of knowing they could be onscreen combined with 'a socially acceptable, safe form of voyeurism that is traditionally taboo.' The presumed authenticity of couples' raw, unrehearsed reactions is key, too, he said. 'So much of our entertainment is highly mediated, edited and packaged for our consumption,' he said. It doesn't always play out as planned – and not all of it is necessarily genuine, thanks to some sports teams' creative minds. Many couples share crowd-pleasing kisses. Others, not so much. Some, snubbed by their companions, stomp off in a huff or peck adjacent fans instead, while youthful pairs looking to lock lips are thwarted by chaperoning adults. Whether any of it is staged doesn't matter much. Fans and audiences alike have enjoyed their moment in the limelight. Resnick, of 15 Seconds of Fame, recalled a moment in June 2024 after a Dallas Mavericks loss in game five of the NBA Finals. The arena cameras zeroed on a fan tearful over the outcome. While it wasn't part of the kiss cam feature, 'the minute he saw himself on the Jumbotron, he smiled and kissed the girl (who was) with him,' Resnick said. 'That's all you need to know about what those 15 seconds mean to fans.'
