karen_dalton raze peter stampfel once said her reimagining of the walker brothers hit "the sun ain't gonna shine anymore" — a song he didn't even like all that much to begin with — was one of the greatest things he ever heard. it looked to be lost forever until the makers of a documentary about free-form radio pioneer bob fass learned she'd performed it on his long-running "radio unnameable" show. when i emailed them to thank them for unearthing this bit of mythical music i thought i would only ever get to wonder about, they told me they weren't including the song in their film (after confirming a recording of it did in fact exist) and they had no plans to do anything but sit on the tapes they'd found until the end of time. i guess she didn't mean much to them. but she means something to me. and i didn't even know her. she was gone before i knew her name. i'll likely die without ever hearing her sing that song. if i could set myself down in just one moment i wasn't alive to see unspool, it might be this: karen crooning about how loneliness is a cloak you wear and a deep shade of blue is always there. a few friends listening and trying to work out how this woman could sound so old when she was still so new to the world. but you know, i can almost make it real by imagining it. she's right there in her rocking chair. fingernails grazing the strings of her guitar. a small smile creasing the corners of her mouth. warping a wall of sound into a lonely little country blues tune. and man, it's beautiful. 251216 what's it to you? who go blather from