Eleanor Wallace

Eleanor Wallace - Fairytale (1966)

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Marissa Nadler - Diamond Heart (2006)

In the mid-2000s there was a scene celebrating both new and forgotten strange folk music, spearheaded by the likes of Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom.  Gigs around that time seemed special, breaking down barriers between (multi-generational) audiences and musicians, sparking mini-festivals and the rediscovery of forgotten, obscure artists from the 60s and early 70s.  One of the artists I have been lucky to see live a few times from the mid-2000s onwards is Marissa Nadler.  She wasn’t central to that movement but rather occupied a place on the edge, following her own course.

"Diamond Heart" is the first track on her 3rd album, produced by Greg Weeks of Espers.  It’s a wonderful piece of spellbinding, dark, gothic psych folk, that both looked back to the sounds of the 60s and also was of its time, influenced by the indie college bands she grew up listening to in the 90s and her love of art and literature.

 

The opening lines of "Fairytale" sound incredibly kindred in spirit to Nadler’s viewpoint and phrasing:

“Hello stranger Where do you go? 

Like the breath of the winds that blow” 

Whilst they were  recorded over 40 years before "Diamond Heart" it still feels as if there is zero degrees of separation between the two songs and two musicians.

"Fairytale" comes from Wallace’s sole album “Songs of the Middle Way”, a private press record from 1966.  Never re-released in any form, this is a magical work from beginning to end.  I genuinely can’t think of a folk record from that period  I would rate  higher.  An unheard masterpiece, deserving of a wide listenership.  The songs are poetic, with a gothic edge, underpinned by the deep resonant sound of her lute on many tracks.  Elsewhere her guitar playing typically utilises a strong finger picking style.   Like Nadler, she had the ability to add the personal, or touches of dry wit  without breaking the spell.  Her vocals are clear, strong, and expressive. Whilst having some similarities to contemporaries such as Buffy St Marie or Joan Baez, her voice has a sensual quality, in many ways more akin to the psych folk revivalists of the 2000s such as Meg Baird. 

Wallace’s story is remarkable, by 1966 she was a divorced working mother of two, in her late 30s, living in Carmel, a bohemian seaside small town, south of San Francisco.  She had performed with her sister more than 20 years previously as the Sunshine Sisters.  In 1964, she had a song published in Broadside ( a precursor to fanzines) the influential Greenwich Village folk magazine that included Dylan, Seeger and Ochs as contributing editors.  A riposte to “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”,  her version, 'It’s Not Alright With Me” didn’t just rewrite the lyrics, but subtly changed the melody too, perhaps a reference to Dylan's  rewriting of existing folk tunes.  Wallace wrote: 

 “His songs are just begging for answers - his typically masculine point of view needs to be counter-balanced by the feminine!” 

Her aim for counterbalance was realised on "Songs of the Middle Way".  Wallace provided a looking glass into 60s culture, critical of suburban conservatism whilst also recognising the casual misogyny prevalent within the counterculture.  It wove together desire, freedom, and fantasy with disappointments, reality and the mundane to ultimately map a route to positive change.  It was ambitiously conceived, masterfully played, arranged, sung and written, not a note or word out of place, the precision of her intense picking matched by the incisive sharpness and beauty of the lyrics.  Dense blues and raga like sounds married to often despondent and dark themes, rich in symbolism, referencing Jung, Simone De Beauvoir and the Old Testament. 

Local to her, Joan Baez (with Dylan for a  short while in 63), Mimi Farina and Richard Farina lived high in Carmel Valley and recorded demos at the same small studio that Wallace cut her album.  I can’t find evidence of her meeting them or playing the same places.  Instead of Monterey or Big Sur, Wallace played at the tiny Carmel Folk Festival or for troops at Fort Ord.  A complete unknown, literally overlooked by the folk royalty of the time.  

Today, her son is hopeful that her recordings may be reissued soon, finally reaching a new and receptive audience almost 60 years on from its release.