Rabbit Songs (Reis)

HEM’s debut album Rabbit Songs now available again through Rounder Records.

HEM has drawn comparisons to artists as disparate as Nick Drake, Mazzy Star, Sandy Denny and Jeff Buckley and drawn fans as varied as The Chemical Brothers, Glenn Tilbrook, Linda Thompson, James Iha and Beth Orton. The music is lush and filled with eclectic harmonies: a mandolin enveloped by an 18-piece orchestra, a pedal steel accentuated by a glockenspiel, underpinned by guitar and piano in an elaborate framework. And through it all, Sally Ellyson’s beautiful voice shaping each word. ASCAP award-winning songwriter and Rabbit Songs Co-Producer, Dan Messé sold off most of his personal possessions so he could afford the 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. Guitarist / Co-Producer Gary Maurer, a seasoned studio engineer, has engineered and / or produced a host of artists and bands including Jon Spencer, Luna and Fountains Of Wayne. "Sally Ellyson has one of those voices - an understated powerhouse that wows with serene confidence. The result is a rich debut that shouldn’t be overlooked" - ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

It's written into the logic of creativity that something like urban clatter and din can create calm. That's Hem. The Brooklyn quartet makes acoustic latticework of guitars, mandolins, piano, an array of orchestral instruments, and the floating voice of Sally Ellyson, which is equally suited to whisper-quiet tunes like the brief opener, "Lord, Blow Out the Moon Please," as it is to "Stupid Mouth Shut" and the band’s boisterous rendition of "The Cuckoo." Hem’s mellowness follows a post-punk New Age bend in the neo-folk road (especially on the sentimental "Burying Song"), but mostly the lyrics recall early Cowboy Junkies, the Hank Dogs, and the Be Good Tanyas. "All That I’m Good For" combines pedal steel with a full complement of strings to create an almost Lambchop level of rustic richness-—while Ellyson’s voice goes from absolute glassy-lake calm to heights Sarah McLachlan would recognize. --Andrew Bartlett