I freely admit that I am a latecomer to the cult of Connie Converse (nee Elizabeth Eaton Converse, b. 1924), but I sure am grateful to have gotten my invitation, via The NY Times. And indeed, Ms. Converse is the very stuff of legends. Originally from Laconia, New Hampshire, Elizabeth Converse moved to New York City after dropping out of college, and lived a bohemian life in Hell's Kitchen and the Village, where she hung out with folk musicians and fellow travelers while building up her own catalog of uniquely off-kilter compositions. A few of these songs were miraculously recorded and preserved back in 1954 by fabled animator Gene Deitch (father of underground cartoonist Kim Deitch) who had a radio show at the time, and played her ditties on the air. She made the scene for a while, including a few TV appearances and whatnot, but eventually abandoned New York for the chillier climes of Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she lived and worked until the day in 1974 when she packed all her belongings up into a VW bug, and drove off, never to be seen or heard from again. Period. Her biography is intriguing by itself, but paired up with her music, it's immensely compelling -- for some, to the edge of obsession.
Comparisons abound, but they are all made in hindsight, as Ms. Converse was so unique and so far ahead of her time that there are few contemporaries to contrast her to, at least in the music world. Her quick wit, self-possession and clipped poetic form bring to mind poet and raconteur Dorothy Parker, while her impish musical persona has a bit of Blossom Dearie's playful tone. But it is as a harbinger that Converse makes her mark on the modern listener: nearly a decade before Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell made their marks, Connie Converse was there, writing some of the most inventive and unusual music of its time, although she was woking in near-total obscurity. In hindsight, Connie Converse is considered one of the great pioneers of the singer-songwriter genre... Track down some of her music, and you'll hear why!
Discography - Albums
Connie Converse "How Sad, How Lonely" (Squirrel Thing Recordings, 2009/2015) (LP)
(Produced by Gene Deitch)
This album, which collects all her known works, is beautifully programmed, opening with several tunes such as "John Brady" and "The Clover Saloon" that press up against the conventions of the folk revival, slyly warping the edges of cowboy humor and folk balladry in a puckish fashion that reminds me of Scottish avant-folkie Alasdair Roberts -- clearly in command of traditional form, but creating something new, playful and perhaps a bit perverse. The set subtly moves into more experimental forms, such as the fantastical "Father Neptune," and then into more internal, contemplative material, songs such as "Honeybee" and "There Is A Vine," which have their own internal logic, wholly independent of traditional folk ballad forms. And then of course, there's her great gem, "We Lived Alone," a compact, clever nugget singing the praises of solitude and self-containment, which contributes greatly to her reputation as a "sad" artist, although the playfulness of the lyrics strongly contradicts that image.
These songs are alluring, and they stand alone, remote on an island of the past. In retrospect, and perhaps by the power of suggestion, we can hear similarities to the great, canonized singer-songwriter pioneers who would emerge decades later... Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell hover on distant horizons, and perhaps even deliberately comedic entertainers such as Loudon Wainwright or the Roches. Dylan is perhaps the closest to her immediate path, being more or less the first folk revivalist of the 'Sixties who truly broke the mold, with the rest of the Village troubadours struggling first to mimic his style, and much later to emulate his iconoclastic spirit. Yet Connie Converse was about a decade ahead of Dylan, albeit with a musical vision that seems more suggestive and inferred than realized and complete. All of the tracks on this album are simply her and her guitar, and while at first blush it sounds like standard-issue folkie strumming, in song after song there's an embedded sense of hidden density and musical complexity, borne perhaps of the same sort of inventive bedroom noodling and naifish introversion that propelled generations of solipsists to come. One track in particular stands out in this regard, the sorrowful but seemingly blithe "Playboy Of The Western World," a carefully structured pop-folk number about a friendship/affair spent with a charismatic bon vivant who passes away too soon. As her guitar strumming and vocals seem to diverge in much the same way as the protagonists, one may start to wonder, "is she actually playing in tune?" Finally, though. a light went off in my head, and I realized that what she was doing was playing guitar and singing in a parallel though complementary fashion, hitting a rarified harmonic space amazingly similar to the airy early explorations of Brazilian legend Joao Gilberto. Even here, though, Converse was coursing ahead of history: Gilberto meticulously developed his style throughout the 1940s and '50s, but didn't officially debut the bossa nova sound on wax until 1959, five years after Gene Deitch made these home recordings of Ms. Converse's work. I'm not saying she invented bossa nova, but she certainly dipped her toes in similar waters. Connie Converse was certainly one of the great what-ifs of obscuro pop culture: if she had toughed it out and stayed in New York back in 1961, who knows what might have happened?
Connie Converse "Sad Lady" (2020) (EP)
Discography - Tributes
Charlotte Mundy & Christopher Goddard "Connie's Piano Songs: The Art Songs Of Elizabeth 'Connie' Converse" (Monkey Farm Records, 2014)
(Produced by Howard Fishman)
In contrast to the collection of Connie Converse singing her own songs, this album unearths many of her previously unrecorded compositions, given an "art song" presentation by pianist Christopher Goddard and soprano Charlotte Mundy, with blessings and behind-the-scenes machinations from biographer Howard Fishman. I've only heard a couple of the tracks and, sadly, I have to admit I am too unrefined and pedestrian to appreciate these versions myself. I'm not trying to slight the performers or the project, but this musical style is just not my cup of tea; to my untrained ears it sounds too formal and too florid, and I have to struggle to follow the lyrics. That said, the songs are every bit as brilliant and idiosyncratic as those on "How Sad, How Lonely," and I for one would love to hear someone tackle them using a simpler approach, maybe more along the lines of the stripped-down home recordings of Ira Gershwin, Frank Loesser, and Cole Porter. Maybe something a little more straightforward and conversational-sounding would allow dumb lugs like me to enjoy these tunes, too.
Various Artists "A VANITY OF VANITIES: A TRIBUTE TO CONNIE CONVERSE" (Tzadik Records, 2017)
The John Zorn related New York art scene crowd pays homage to one of their legendary predecessors... The participants include luminaries such as Laurie Anderson, Sarah Jarosz, Eyvind Kang, Karen O, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Patton (of Faith No More) and a parade of indie rockers and artsy types...
Connie Converse "Sad Lady" (2020) (EP)
Other Media
"To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, And Mystery Of Connie Converse" (Dutton Books, 2023)
(Written by Howard Fishman)
Links
Hick Music Index
