"Silver Dagger", or "Katy Dear", is an American folk ballad, first published in 1907. It likely traces its roots to the British Isles of late 19th century, though possibly much earlier.

In "Silver Dagger", the narrator turns away a potential suitor, as her mother has warned her to avoid the advances of men in an attempt to spare her daughter the heartbreak that she herself has endured. Arguably the most famous recording is the 1960 recording by Joan Baez, which features only a few of the many verses in the 1907 version.

"Katy Dear" uses the same melody but different lyrics, telling a similar story from a different perspective. The most famous recording may be that of folk duo Ian & Sylvia in 1964.

Numerous versions of the song were performed and recorded by the early balladeers in the genre now known as "old-time music", though certainly these songs did not achieve the fame or widespread renown that was possible in more recent times. It is very likely that the versions popularized in the 1960s were learned directly from these old-time balladeers via field visits and recordings in rural Appalachia, which was a popular activity of the more 'musicology-minded' of the 1960's folk revivalists.

Silver Dagger can refer to:

Silver dagger was also the name given to the mercenaries in the fantasy trilogy of the Deverry cycle

Joan Chandos Baez ( /ˈbaɪ.ɛz/) (born January 9, 1941 as Joan Chandos Báez) is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice.

Baez has a distinctive vocal style, with a strong vibrato. Her recordings include many topical songs and material dealing with social issues.

Baez began her career performing in coffeehouses in Boston and Cambridge, and rose to fame as an unbilled performer at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival. She began her recording career in 1960, and achieved immediate success. Her first three albums, Joan Baez, Joan Baez, Vol. 2, and Joan Baez in Concert all achieved gold record status, and stayed on the charts for two years.

Baez has had a popular hit song with "Diamonds & Rust" and hit covers of Phil Ochs's "There but for Fortune" and The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". Other songs associated with Baez include "Farewell, Angelina", "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word", "Joe Hill", "Sweet Sir Galahad" and "We Shall Overcome". She performed three of the songs at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, helped to bring the songs of Bob Dylan to national prominence, and has displayed a lifelong commitment to political and social activism in the fields of nonviolence, civil rights, human rights and the environment.

Barbara Dane (born May 12, 1927) is an American folk, blues, and jazz singer.

Barbara Dane's parents arrived in Detroit from Arkansas in the 1920s. Out of high school, Dane began to sing regularly at demonstrations for racial equality and economic justice. While still in her teens, she sat in with bands around town and won the interest of local music promoters. She got an offer to tour with Alvino Rey's band, but she turned it down in favor of singing at factory gates and in union halls.

Moving to San Francisco in 1949, Dane began raising her own family and singing her folk and topical songs around town as well as on radio and television. A jazz revival was then shaking the town, and by the 1950s she became a familiar figure at clubs along the city's Embarcadero with her own versions of women's blues and jazz tunes. New Orleans jazz musicians like George Lewis and Kid Ory and locals like Turk Murphy, Burt Bales, Bob Mielke and others invited her onto the bandstand regularly. Her first professional jazz job was with Turk Murphy at the Tin Angel in l956.^{[citation needed]}

Sally Patricia Oldfield (born 8 March 1947), is a singer-songwriter, sister of composers Mike Oldfield and Terry Oldfield.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Oldfield and her siblings were raised in the Roman Catholic faith of their mother, Maureen. Spending her childhood in Reading, Berkshire, Oldfield studied ballet from the age of four and won numerous competitions in all styles of dance, including ballet, tap and modern. At the age of eleven, she won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dancing, then located in Holland Park, London, and two years later was starred to move on to the Royal Ballet School at White Lodge. However, she gave up ballet two years later, and achieved three A-Levels at Grade A. She also studied classical piano to Grade 7. All her school years were spent at St Joseph's Convent School, Reading, where she became friends with Marianne Faithfull.

Oldfield then went on to read English Literature and Philosophy at Bristol University. She had originally planned to move on to postgraduate studies. However, following a spontaneous near-death experience while walking on a beach in the spring of 1968, she began to write songs which she had never done before and from that moment she knew she wanted a life in music.^{[citation needed]}