Album Notes

In the spring of 1999, songwriter Dan Messé (piano, glockenspiel, harmonium) teamed up with producer/engineer Gary Maurer (guitar, mandolin) and decided to make a record. He hoped that it would stylistically interweave their interest in traditional American music with more of a contemporary aesthetic. Dan and Gary's mutual friend Steve Curtis (guitar, mandolin) became involved and all that was needed was a singer.

The band placed an ad in the Village Voice. An onslaught of bizarre demos followed suit and so the ad was pulled.

Shortly thereafter a woman named Sally Ellyson called Dan in response to it, cautioning that she wasn't really a "singer". To get her off the phone Dan asked for a demo, skeptical to say the least. This home-made tape of Sally unaccompanied, singing versions of traditional lullabies, was spare, deceptively uncomplicated and as spine-tingling as anything Dan could have hoped for. The band that would now call itself Hem had found its singer.

Having started off as a low-budget collaboration between musician friends, the Rabbit Songs sessions seemed to take on a life of their own. As the album began to take shape, the band realized that they were creating something special. Dan commenced selling off most of his personal possessions so he could afford the 18 piece orchestras, and the luxury of being as painstaking as they wanted over the arrangements of each song. No samples, no synths, no Pro-Tools mixing and no digital studio wizardry were employed. Rabbit Songs is an old school album, recorded the old school way. Gary, a seasoned studio engineer, has worked with a host of artists and bands including Jon Spencer, Luna, Fountains Of Wayne and James Iha.

A fragment of the home-made tape Sally made for Dan serves as the starting point for Rabbit Songs' historical exploration of American music. The music is lush and filled with eclectic harmonies: a mandolin enveloped by an eighteen-piece orchestra, a pedal steel accentuated by a glockenspiel, underpinned by the guitar in an elaborate framework. And through it all, Sally's beautiful voice shaping each word.

Rabbit Songs is a labor of love. As you listen, we hope you will understand why band members were bankrupted to complete it.