The Perlich Post: Folk Psych Spellcasters

Monday, November 16, 2009

Folk Psych Spellcasters – TNG: Alela Diane

The otherworldly sound of cult faves Vashti Bunyan, Karen Dalton, Linda Perhacs and Sibylle Baier has left some freak folk fans wondering, "where is the next generation of spellcasters?" Well, they're out there waiting to be discovered much like their predecessors from the 60s and 70s who didn't really register any degree of popularity until decades after their recording career was over.
Some of them are closer than you think. In fact, one of the most beguiling voices to come along in decades belongs to 26-year-old Alela Diane who's currently en route to Toronto where she'll be playing the Horseshoe with Marissa Nadler tonight (Monday, November 16). Arising from the same tiny Nevada City scene in Northern California that produced Joanna Newsom, Alela Diane grew up singing and playing guitar with her musician parents in the sort of breathtakingly bucolic environment that continues to shape the imagistic choices of her songwriting.

Back in 2004, her guitar-picking father, Tom Menig, home produced what would become her breakout album, The Pirate's Gospel which she initially sold from the stage at shows in handmade paper and lace sleeves much like her long out-of-print Forest Parade self-released debut from the previous year.
However, it wasn't until the Pirate's Gospel was reissued two years later in a far less fancy edition by Portland's Holocene Music and the UK-based Names Records issued a collection of her acoustic demos for a follow-up album as the Songs Whistled Through White Teeth as a 10" EP that Alela Diane's prodigious gifts came to international attention.
There's a wonderful directness and warmth to Alela Diane's intimate delivery which quavers with a slightly melancholic underpinning that's strangely compelling when woven into her gently plucked guitar figures. It sticks with you.
When New York A&R dude Eddie Bezalel (behind Mark Ronson's Version album) and pals David Holmes and Primal Scream producer Hugo Nicholson were looking for a singer with a certain mystique to voice their Headless Heroes covers concept album, they knew they hit paydirt when they came across Alela Diane's myspace page.

The fact that she wasn't familiar with many of the songs they wanted her to sing for The Silence Of Love album – stuff like Philamore Lincoln's The North Wind Blew South, Juicy Lucy's Just One Time, the Gentle Soul's See My Love and Daniel Johnston's True Love Will Find You In The End) wasn't a drawback. They were looking for fresh takes and Alela Diane gave them much more than they could've hoped for. But without proper promotion and a clueless marketing plan involving staggered UK and North American release dates sans tour support, the Silence Of Love album never really got off the ground. Decades from now, it'll be the overlooked cutout-bin classic in Alela Diane's recording canon that obsessive fans will hail as a lost masterwork.

The Headless Heroes one-off was soon eclipsed by the February release of Alela Diane's To Be Still (Rough Trade) album, her finest work yet. Begun in Portland where she now resides and finished up back at her father's home studio in Nevada City, To Be Still easily her most fully realized recording, making tasteful use of string accompaniment, harmony vocals and yes, even percussion!

Of course, it's all merely window dressing for that captivating voice but her own remarkable compositions like White As Diamonds, the Alder Trees and Tatted Lace also suggest that she's maturing into a fine composer as well. For those who prefer hearing Alela Diane with less instrumental fillagree, a thrilingly stark six-song duet session with Alina Hardin has just been issued as the Alela & Alina (Family/Names) 10" EP to coincide with the current tour which brings her to the Horseshoe this evening. You'd better act fast though, it's a hand-numbered limited edition of 1000 copies and mine is 972.