LP + bonus 7" - silver vinyl
The hugely revelatory debut collection of mystery 1950s folk singer-songer Connie Converse that was first brought to wider public attention in 2009 now gets another reissue, and seemingly not before time either given the vastly inflated prices of originals currently on the second hand market. The enduring allure is easy to make sense of. The Connie Converse story gains the headlines for her disappearance during the mid 70s after a prolific period of kinda-homemade creativity and self-direction, but the songs themselves really do stand in isolation as something particularly special. Converse's music arrives in a strange pocket of time, bridging the gap between Alan Lomax/Pete Seeger/Folkways accumulation and recording of indigenous American song, an emerging teenage audience activated by the birth of rock n roll, and the incoming new wave of folk ushered in by the 60s. Her songs seem to speak to the intersection of these worlds, modern, yet steeped in tradition, and underpinned by the charming desires and motivations of youth. An old soul and a young soul all at once, and now, these many decades later, seemingly a timeless soul too, that seems to speak to the universal feelings of love and loss and longing that belong to us all even if the shapes they're wrapped up shift in dimension. Shirley Collins, Elizabeth Cotten, Tia Blake et al, yes, but you can also hear the spirit of these songs in the likes of modern torch bearers like Maxine Funke, Anna Savage and Soccer Committee. The true music.
FFO: Shirley Collins, Elizabeth Cotten, Tia Blake
