In 1987, I began work on a book to be titled "I Hear New England Singing." It was to encompass as many of the region's singer/songwriters as I could interview. My good friend Jim Harvey would take the photos. For a variety of reasons, the book never got beyond chapter one! But that chapter began a long term admiration on my part for the subject and his amazing musical output. 25 years have passed, and David Mallett keeps turning out brilliantly crafted songs. I'll add an update at the end that will catch you up on what he's done since 1987, but right now (with only a few edits) here's that old chapter one. It was drawn from an October 3, 1987 interview in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine.
From the stage of Foxcroft Academy, native son David Mallett is telling a packed house how songs are born.My father and I were working in the garden, when it fell out of the sky and landed right between us. I've always wondered what would have happened if Dad had picked it up instead of me. Probably would have thrown it out with the rest of the weeds.
Specifically, he is talking about a special day in the mid-1970s when he received the inspiration for Garden Song, his most widely-appreciated composition to date. And if you doubt that songs fall from the sky and land in gardens, then you have not conversed with enough songwriters. Before the concert, while attending to various details in the Academy locker room, the songwriter in question reflected upon some of the highlights of his career to that point.
David Mallett, born March 21, 1952, in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, has been creating words and music that amount to art on a steady basis since about 1972. He echoes the notion of many of his peers that the best songs write themselves. "The music is not me, it's beyond me, and I am fortunate enough to be attached to it."
Over the past decade, Mallett has shared nearly fifty of his songs with us on five well-crafted albums. It was the first of these, David Mallett (produced by fellow Mainer Noel Paul Stookey, who signed Dave to his
Neworld Media label in 1978), that stood the New England folk trust on its collective ear and sent a ripple along the entertainment world's grapevine that eventually reached Colorado's John Denver, then the country's hottest recording artist. Denver adored Mallett's songs and signed him to a publishing contract with Cherry Lane Music, and in 1979 Denver recorded Garden Song (followed by Ballad of the Saint Anne's Reel and You Say That the Battle Is Over in 1980), thus marking the arrival of David Mallett as a "legitimate" songwriter. Just about everyone has since recorded Garden Song, with Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy's rendition being Dave's personal favorite.
Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow.
All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground.
Inch by inch, row by row, someone bless these seeds I sow.
Someone warm them from below till the rain comes tumblin' down.
David Mallet has lived in Maine all his life, most recently in an old farmhouse near Dixmont. His youth in the small town of Sebec was highlighted (not surprisingly) by music. The local movie house, the radio and the record player provided such lasting influences as Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, and the Kingston Trio. [Ironically, in 1985 Dave was invited to join a trio that included former Kingstons John Stewart and Nick Reynolds.] He cut his musical teeth performing with his older brother, Neil, in the early 1960s. Neil would later sing harmony on his little brother's first album. Remembers Dave: "He played guitar and I sang. And then I got a guitar and he sang harmony, and then we called ourselves the Mallett Brothers, and we toured throughout Maine, a little bit of New Hampshire and the Maritimes. Made a couple singles; had a TV show out of Bangor for a couple of years."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nomqfR4a6Fk
He had added the influence of Bob Dylan and his contemporaries by the time he went off to the University of Maine, and it was there that Dave came into his own as a singer/songwriter.
Dave holds northern and central Maine dear to his heart and intends to grow old there, although his career ambitions have him heading south again this winter - and probably for many more to come. Nashville has welcomed Mallett with open arms, as it has other folk-style songwriters like Nanci Griffith (from Texas). Noted Country producer Jim Rooney took Dave under his Nashville wing in September of 1985, and the result was Mallett's first non-New England album, Vital Signs. Will Folk's loss be
Country's gain? "I've never liked the terms Folk Music, Country Music, Rock Music. I just like Music. And gradually I'm seeing a breaking down of the lines that separate us all, and everybody's influenced by everybody else. It's kinda nice."
Part of the reason for the Nashville move could have been the response to his 1983 album Open Doors & Windows, a brilliant collection of songs (recorded in Massachusetts) that failed to make any new inroads, saleswise. Popular throughout most of New England, Mallett seemed to encounter an invisible wall whenever he tried to gain a more national following.
So now the bottom line is reaching a broader audience. Dave feels he has ridden the Folk train as far as it can go. "When you get a big campaign going for it, it's not Folk Music anymore. Folk Music likes to be kind of on the back porch, and unfortunately for those of us who make a living with it, that's a disadvantage." He loves Maine but feels impeded by its isolation from the current mainstream of popular culture, and Dave is hard pressed to name more than a few fellow New Englanders (Lui Collins, Patty Larkin, Bill Lauf) whose music he is knowledgeable enough about to comment on. He enjoys the healthy competition of Nashville's songwriting world. In "Music City" his is surrounded by old heroes (like Harlan Howard, John Prine, and Guy Clark), and there he can hopefully peddle songs to other performers as well as perfect his own recording skills. "There's nothing wrong with salesmanship and commerciality, because what I want to do is reach as many people as I can, because I feel like I have something to offer to everybody that listens, and I'm convinced of that just from what fans I do have and the feedback that I've had over the years; what I have given them and what they have given me. And I just feel that in hanging back and dragging your feet and saying 'Oh, I don't want to be commercial; I don't want to sell records,' and all that, you're not doing yourself or the music any good."
Part of the transformation from Folk to Country/Folk is superficial: he was "David" Mallett until Vital Signs, which signaled the official beginning of "Dave" Mallett. Another part may be more far-reaching: his approach to lyric writing is slowly changing, away from topical songs; no more whale saving from Dave Mallett, or at least not for the moment. But one gets the feeling that Country love songs do not flow as easily from his pen as he would like. While the likes of Red Red Rose and Dreamers are a cut above the ordinary, Vital Signs' crowning glories are (Coming Apart) At the Seams, an homage to a James Dean-like school chum who took one too many fast curves, and April, a remembrance of many fine springs as a child in Maine. Indeed, (Coming Apart) At the Seams turned out to be his first "covered" song in Nashville (recorded by Marty Stuart in 1986), and Mallett considers April to be his favorite composition to date. Like many of Dave's better lyrics, the song paints a picture that is intrinsically autobiographical.
April calls you loud and clear
From the middle of the coldest year
A frozen smile, a crystal tear
Are melting in the sun
Across the yard a sudden laugh
And an echo from the hidden path
And all the world's a muddy bath
When old man Winter's done
I remember April days when a warm wind took the snow away
A robin did a bold display and a gentle crocus bloomed
I was a kicking child of spring
With a will to run and a gift to sing
And a heart that took to wandering
When it heard the wildwood tune
There will be more great songs on future albums, to be sure. Light At the End of a Tunnel is one that Dave will preview for the home folks tonight. This weekend marks the 65th anniversary of the joining of the towns Dover and Foxcroft, and the song seems appropriate for the occasion, as it was inspired by Dave's grandfather, Will Towne. Will had a favorite workhorse named Blackie that he loved more dearly than just about anything, and Blackie's eventual demise hit the farmer hard. Years later when Will lay on his deathbed, one of Dave's cousins reportedly heard him say that he had seen Blackie at the window and knew that he had come to take him home. The song is about finding a glimmer of hope at death's door. Is is not your typical Country song anymore than Dave Mallett is your typical Country songwriter. One can only hope that the influx of Mallett and others as talented may have more of an influence on Nashville than Nashville will have on them.
Dave's accompanists for the evening's show are Chris Neville (from Boston) on keyboards and Mike Burd (from Maine) on bass, both of whom provided the same assistance on Vital Signs. Dave, as always, plays acoustic six and twelve string guitars, and sings up a storm. Surprisingly, his lyrics seem to come through clearer from the stage than they often do from his recordings.
Dave has lots of other new songs - recorded in Nashville last winter - that are basically ready to release, but he is hoping to sign with a major lable; one that will have the resources to help his songs reach that broader audience he seeks. For a man who is admittedly reclusive and anti-capitalistic, and who was formerly against advertising and hype when it came to his music, this was a difficult decision that took years to reach. But if the ends justify the means, then posterity will be well served. Asked how he would most like to be remembered, Mallett says he hopes he will earn at least a footnote as a "word man," a writer of "popular music that has meat to it. And that's a tall order." This artist is sincerely serious about his music, and over the years that has translated into ambition.
Dave Mallett straddles the Foxcroft Academy locker room bench, working with a sort of nervous confidence on a set list for tonight's concert, with one foot pointing toward Nashville and the other firmly planted in the soil of his native Maine.
Dave's accompanists for the evening's show are Chris Neville (from Boston) on keyboards and Mike Burd (from Maine) on bass, both of whom provided the same assistance on Vital Signs. Dave, as always, plays acoustic six and twelve string guitars, and sings up a storm. Surprisingly, his lyrics seem to come through clearer from the stage than they often do from his recordings.
Dave has lots of other new songs - recorded in Nashville last winter - that are basically ready to release, but he is hoping to sign with a major lable; one that will have the resources to help his songs reach that broader audience he seeks. For a man who is admittedly reclusive and anti-capitalistic, and who was formerly against advertising and hype when it came to his music, this was a difficult decision that took years to reach. But if the ends justify the means, then posterity will be well served. Asked how he would most like to be remembered, Mallett says he hopes he will earn at least a footnote as a "word man," a writer of "popular music that has meat to it. And that's a tall order." This artist is sincerely serious about his music, and over the years that has translated into ambition.
Dave Mallett straddles the Foxcroft Academy locker room bench, working with a sort of nervous confidence on a set list for tonight's concert, with one foot pointing toward Nashville and the other firmly planted in the soil of his native Maine.
Pullin' weeds and pickin' stones, man is made of dreams and bones.
Feel the need to grow my own, 'cause the time is close at hand.
Grain for grain, sun and rain, find my way in nature's chain.
Tune my body and my brain to the music from the land.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m0LewjkO4s
[Lyrics from Garden Song (c) 1977 Old Road Music and Cherry Lane Music Publishing Company, Inc. Lyrics from April (c) 1983 Cherry Lane Music Publishing Company, Inc., ASCAP.]
How did Dave's decade in Nashville work out for him? Well, he did more recording, although he never landed that major label he was aiming for. But his songs got noticed and recorded. Emmylou Harris covered one of his Vital Signs tunes, Red Red Rose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr2NRkguzKg
Dave's follow-up to Vital Signs was 1988's For a Lifetime, again produced by Jim Rooney (and again released on the Flying Fish label). It contained more great Mallett originals, including Summer of My Dreams, which was covered by Kathy Mattea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJPk7ckkilo
In all, David Mallett has recorded fifteen albums so far in his career, seven of them since his return to Maine in 1997. From Flying Fish he went to the Vanguard label for awhile in the mid-1990s, then back to Flying Fish when he moved back home for the 1997 album Parallel Lives and 1999's Ambition. In 2003, he got smart and started his own label, North Road Records, based in his current home of Sebec, Maine. His first release was Artist In Me, one of the most acclaimed Folk albums of 2003. That was followed in 2006 by what could be called a "greatest hits: live" album, Midnight On the Water, which is a great place to begin if you are just getting into Mr. Mallett's work.
Then Dave took a giant (and somewhat risky) leap into the spoken word recording genre with his 2007 album The Fable True: Stories From Thoreau's "The Maine Woods," for which he provided music and narration for Henry David Thoreau's classic book about his journeys in the Pine Tree State. All of the North Road recordings have featured what has become Dave's permanent band of Mike Burd on bass and Susan Ramsey on violin. Dave's guitar is now constantly accompanied by his wide assortment of harmonicas.
And if anyone thought David Mallett was running out of steam, 2009's release of Alright Now certainly put that to rest in a big way. This is the best album he's ever made, and he's even back to doing the occasional topical song again, with both North Meets South and Ten Men firmly in that category. New instant Mallett classics include Beautiful (written for his daughter), the haunting Dark Side of the Moon, and the slightly fabulous Innocent Time.
After stating at a concert two years ago that his next album would be titled The Horse I Rode In On, a collection of covers of songs that inspired him to get into the music business (he previewed his excellent version of A Tombstone Every Mile by Dick Curless), he has put that on hold and instead recorded an album "in conjunction with the Maine Farmland Trust" titled Greenin' Up, "twelve songs that celebrate farming, the natural world and rural life." He's included a few new songs and fresh versions of some of his classics, like Garden Song, April, and Summer of My Dreams.
It's being released this week, just in time for Lorie and I to pick it up at his December 1 concert at Roaring Brook Nature Center in Canton, Connecticut. It's a yearly ritual that we always look forward to. I'm not sure exactly how many times we've enjoyed a David Mallett concert since 1987, but they've all been great, and he always comes out to shake hands and sign CDs for the faithful after the show. I'm sure it's going to be a first-rate album. Details on all things Mallett can be found on his website:
It's being released this week, just in time for Lorie and I to pick it up at his December 1 concert at Roaring Brook Nature Center in Canton, Connecticut. It's a yearly ritual that we always look forward to. I'm not sure exactly how many times we've enjoyed a David Mallett concert since 1987, but they've all been great, and he always comes out to shake hands and sign CDs for the faithful after the show. I'm sure it's going to be a first-rate album. Details on all things Mallett can be found on his website:
Or his Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Mallett/43762629366?ref=ts&fref=ts
I'm sure Dave would want me to mention that his sons have a band that is really starting to take off with some great reviews and live performances: http://mallettbrothersband.com/
In their millenium edition, the Bangor Daily News listed the "most memorable Mainers of the Twentieth Century," and right there among the names of Andrew Wyeth, E. B. White, Stephen King, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, was... David Mallett!
Mr. Mallett is in a good place right now, creatively and personally. This statement on his website says it all: When he is not touring, the place where he makes his songs is in his writing room in an old farmhouse with a view across the field and a tintype of his great-great grandfather on the wall. "I like to keep reaching out to touch the past," he says, "to connect it with what's going on now. To me music is one of the few things that's timeless...human emotion is one continual chain."
Special thanks to David Mallett, Mike Burd, and Jim Harvey.
Portions of this blog originally appeared in The Piscataquis Observer.
I'm sure Dave would want me to mention that his sons have a band that is really starting to take off with some great reviews and live performances: http://mallettbrothersband.com/
In their millenium edition, the Bangor Daily News listed the "most memorable Mainers of the Twentieth Century," and right there among the names of Andrew Wyeth, E. B. White, Stephen King, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, was... David Mallett!
Mr. Mallett is in a good place right now, creatively and personally. This statement on his website says it all: When he is not touring, the place where he makes his songs is in his writing room in an old farmhouse with a view across the field and a tintype of his great-great grandfather on the wall. "I like to keep reaching out to touch the past," he says, "to connect it with what's going on now. To me music is one of the few things that's timeless...human emotion is one continual chain."
Special thanks to David Mallett, Mike Burd, and Jim Harvey.
Portions of this blog originally appeared in The Piscataquis Observer.
