Marissa Nadler kindly rearranged her life for us on this third day of September. She had planned on doing a short Midwestern jaunt before hooking up later for a terrifying (her feelings) support tour with Peter, Bjorn & John, an opportunity that was to coincide sweetly with the release of her Kemado debut, Songs III: Bird on the Water. The run of dates was to start in Minneapolis, move on to Chicago and trail off along its rightful direction before taking her back home to Seattle. She was flying into Chicago to begin everything and then was going to take trains and rental cars around , just her and her guitar and her mystical voice. Things changed when we got in touch. After hearing an advance of Songs III, we knew we had to at least try to have her by for a visit. We concocted a plan to have her fly into O’Hare and then take an Amtrak – due to her travelling alone and a distaste for long drives of more than a few hours, owing mostly to a shaky way with directions – to Galesburg, Ill., the nearest depot and us making the 45-minute drive to pick her up and then take her back that same night. A few days before the journey, we talked and the train was replaced with a rental car plan. She was going to scrap the Minneapolis show and spend the extra days visiting her brother – a student in the University of Iowa’s esteemed Writer’s Workshop – just 45 minutes further west from us. She rented a car with the highest-powered GPS system for the extra fee that was quickly paid for and the legwork was taken out of it for us. She was here early, politely requested for ever more reverb to be slathered on her vocals and anything else in the live room that moved. She was shy, looking forward to vegetating with her brother, and hesitant in front of the camera lens. Quiet and demure in her red dress of simple pattern and design, shoes that had been previously worn by someone other than herself and vulnerable in her softness, Nadler was a delight in her mysteriousness. – Sean Moeller

Descriptions in whole from Marissa Nadler:
These four songs are from a combination of origins. Sylvia and Diamond Heart are both from Songs III: Bird on the Water, which was produced by Greg Weeks of the Philadelphia band the Espers. Honey Bear is a new song that I was able to record in the Kemado Records New York studios when told I would get to include four new songs with the US release of the record. I was really excited to get to include fresh songs. The time it takes from the writing process to when a record is actually heard can be quite long, so Honey Bear and Salutations in the Dark are more present representations of my songwriting.

First song
Sylvia (Marissa Nadler) [5.00MB] [3606 downloads]


– original version appears on Songs III: Bird on the Water

Second song
Diamond Heart (Marissa Nadler) [5.89MB] [3221 downloads]


— original version appears on Songs III: Bird on the Water

Fourth song
Honey Bear (Marissa Nadler) [3.34MB] [3348 downloads]


— original version appears on Songs III: Bird on the Water