How sad, how lovely

Description

How Sad, How Lovely: How sad, how lovely... It is the title of a song and of Connie Converse’s only album, and it is a bit of the story of her life. Let’s begin at the end, suspended. In August 1974, Connie Converse, aged 50, employed at the University of Michigan and suffering from depression, puts her belongings in her Beetle and leaves, leaving farewell letters for her loved ones. No news since. If Connie Converse is still alive, pure speculation, she is 85 years old. If she is dead, it is the ghost of her youth, and of her aborted glory, that comes today to haunt and enchant us on the album How Sad, How Lovely. Flashback: In 1954, Connie Converse is 30 years old. Originally from New Hampshire, she has lived in New York since 1949, and composes songs that she performs for her family. In 1954 then, Gene Deitch, one of her fans, a radio host, offers to record her. 1954 is shortly after the death of Hank Williams, and it is the year rock’n’roll was born. But for Connie Converse, who looks like an unmarried schoolteacher, it might just as well be 1854, or 1254. Deeply folk - guitar, vocals -, her songs seem to come from the time of the American pioneers, or even from the distant era when noble ladies of the old continent languished behind the walls of fortified castles while their lordly husbands were at battle. Timeless and solitary ballads, lullabies gnawed at by melancholy, elegies that are both peaceful and moving, sung in a soft, colorless voice. Short, essential songs, with an unfathomable sadness warmed by a laconic glimmer of hope. The blues of the white woman healed by music, as heard 20 years earlier in the poignant recordings of the Carter Family. Or the soundtrack to the unchanging and desolate Americana painted by Edward Hopper. How sad, how lovely. Despite the quality of her songs and Gene Deitch’s enthusiasm, Connie Converse was never able to enter the circuit of artists who play concerts and make records. In 1961, she leaves New York, goes to live and work in Michigan, reserving her talents as a songwriter and performer for her loved ones. Among whom we are today. Thirty years after Connie Converse’s disappearance, retired after a long career as a director and producer, Gene Deitch is invited to present his favorite songs on an American radio station. On his playlist is One By One by Connie “bad luck” Converse. Behind the microphone is Daniel Dzula, a man who falls in love with One By One, and spends 3 years tracking down Connie Converse’s songs, before launching into the production of the album released today - he created a label just for that (www.lauderette.com). A poetic, rare and haunted record, listened to in the limbo of a Modiano-like reverie. These precious songs saved from oblivion, we discover them 55 years after they were recorded, and we just want to say to them: girls, we missed you.