Casse Culver
American musician (1944–2019)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karen Sue "Casse" Culver (March 7, 1944 – December 4, 2019) was an American folk singer and songwriter in the women's music genre.
March 7, 1944
Casse Culver | |
|---|---|
Karen "Casse" Culver, from the 1964 yearbook of St. Mary's College of Maryland | |
| Born | Karen Culver March 7, 1944 Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | December 4, 2019 (age 75) Milton, Delaware, U.S. |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter |
| Spouse | Boden Sandstrom |
Early life and education
Culver was born in Bethesda, Maryland,[1] the daughter of Ronald H. Culver and Thyra Marjorie Ferguson Culver. Her father was an electrical engineer and her mother was a beautician.[2] She attended St. Mary's College of Maryland.[3] In the 1980s, she took a course of Bible study at the Way of Faith Christian Institute in Virginia.[4] Her older brother Donald M. Culver was president of the Gay Restaurant Owners of Washington.[5]
Career
Culver began singing and playing guitar as a busker in the late 1960s.[6][7] She had a record contract in 1971,[8] and recorded an unreleased album.[9] Culver played her "very personal, folk-sounding music"[10] at women's music festivals, and toured nationally in the 1970s.[4][11][12] Susan Abod performed with Culver in concerts,[1][13] and on Culver's album 3 Gypsies (1976).[14] She and Boden Sandstrom began a sound company, Woman Sound, in 1975.[15][16]
Beyond music, Culver was an organic gardener in Woodstock, New York, in the late 1960s, and ran a garden and landscaping service in the 1980s.[17] She enjoyed doing home renovation projects, and was a house manager for a group home in Washington, D.C. In the 1980s, she taught at a church, Hear and Be Healed Ministries,[18] and was known as "the Rev. Elder Casse Culver" by the early 1990s.[5][17]
Publications and recordings
- Casse Culver Songbook[4]
- 3 Gypsies (1976 LP)[19][20]
- "What We Gonna Do (About Anita)"/"Queen of the Night" (1978 single)[19]
- Songs and Other Dreams (1982 LP)[19]
- "Ride, Sally Ride!"/"Blame it on the Moon" (1982 single)[19][21]
- Casse Culver Live in Concert (1984 cassette, recorded in 1974)[19]
- "Perfect Child of God" (2018, poem)[22]
Personal life
Culver married Boden Sandstrom in 2013,[17] but they were together "on and off" from the mid-1970s.[23][24] Culver died from lung cancer in 2019, at the age of 75, in Milton, Delaware.[24] There is a large collection of her papers in the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History at Smith College.[17] There is a recording of Casse Culver and Willie Tyson performing in 1976 on WBAI in New York, in the Pacifica Radio Archives.[25][26]