How Sad, How Lovely

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How Sad, How Lovely
A photo of Converse's face looking down, superimposed over mountains and a colorful background
Compilation album by
Connie Converse
ReleasedMarch 5, 2009 (2009-03-05)
Recorded1954[1]
StudioGene Deitch's kitchen, New York City, New York, United States[1]
Genre
Length40:32
LanguageEnglish
LabelLau Derette Recordings
Producer
  • Dan Dzula
  • David Herman
Connie Converse chronology
How Sad, How Lovely
(2009) 		Sad Lady
(2020)

How Sad, How Lovely is the first album collecting music from American singer-songwriter Connie Converse, released in 2009. The guitarist and singer had disappeared over 30 years prior and this compilation is made up of some of the few recordings she made in the 1960s; it has received positive critical reception and led to a few other such compilations and tribute albums.

Recording and release[edit]

Cartoonist Gene Deitch met Converse in the early 1950s and invited her to record her songs in his kitchen. The recordings were dormant for 50 years, until he published "One by One" in 2004, leading to Dan Dzula tracking him down to restore, produce, and release a collection of Converse's music.[4]

Reception[edit]

Critical reception[edit]

Editors of AllMusic Guide scored this release 4.5 out of five stars, with reviewer Fred Thomas noting that "Converse's lyrics are always playful, spacy, and even somewhat psychedelic" and that she "made songs far too vulnerable and odd to be accepted in her time".[2] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Randall Roberts shortlisted this album among excellent reissues coming out in the following months and calling the work "strikingly intimate, poetic self-penned folk songs".[5] Fellow folk performer Robert Forster characterized the release as "both a historical document and a living, breathing album", noting how Converse may have single-handedly shifted American folk music from political music and work songs toward the confessional emphasis of singer-songwriter music: "doing this, alone and unaided, making a deep and marvellous connection between lyric and song that allows us to enter the world of an extraordinary woman living in mid-twentieth-century New York".[3]

A 2014 overview of Converse's life by BBC News had author Ian Youngs characterizing the musician as a writer of "haunting, beautiful songs with a poetic honesty and melodic sophistication" who "was not the most gifted vocalist or guitar player" but who sang "with a depth, intimacy and eloquence that were rare for that era".[1] John Paul of PopMatters rated the 2015 re-release an eight out of 10, calling her biography secondary to the musical legacy she left, noting that "a closer listen to the melodic constructs of each and, most importantly, the lyrical content, the siren-like allure of Connie Converse becomes impossible to resist".[6] In 2020, Greta Kline of Frankie Cosmos named this one of her favorite albums.[7]

Popular reception[edit]

The popular reception to Converse's music has been unexpectedly positive,[8] starting with a cult following shortly after its release, to tribute albums and a documentary in the next few years,[1] and with her songs becoming hits on streaming music service Spotify by the mid-2010s.[4]

Track listing[edit]

All songs written by Connie Converse

  1. "Talkin’ Like You (Two Tall Mountains)" – 2:30
  2. "Johnny’s Brother" – 2:47
  3. "Roving Woman" – 2:41
  4. "Down This Road" – 1:44
  5. "The Clover Saloon" – 2:12
  6. "John Brady" – 1:46
  7. "We Lived Alone" – 1:15
  8. "Playboy of the Western World" – 4:01
  9. "Unknown (A Little Louder, Love)" – 0:34
  10. "One by One" – 2:05
  11. "Father Neptune" – 2:06
  12. "Man in the Sky" – 4:04
  13. "Empty Pocket Waltz" – 1:59
  14. "Honeybee" – 1:34
  15. "There Is a Vine" – 1:35
  16. "How Sad, How Lovely" – 2:38
  17. "Trouble" – 1:19
  18. "I Have Considered the Lillies" – 3:42

In 2015, Captured Tracks re-released the album on vinyl, adding the final track.[9]

Personnel[edit]

  • Connie Converse – guitar on all tracks, vocals on all tracks, tape operator/recording engineer on "Johnny's Brother", "Roving Woman", "The Clover Saloon", "John Brady", "One by One", "Man in the Sky", "Empty Pocket Waltz", "Honeybee", and "How Sad, How Lovely"
  • Gene Deitch – recording engineer/tape operator on "Talkin' Like You (Two Tall Mountains)", "Down This Road", "We Lived Alone", "Playboy of the Western World", "Unknown (A Little Louder, Love)", "Father Neptune", "There Is a Vine", and "Trouble"
  • Dan Dzula – production, restoration
  • David Herman – production, restoration
  • Mike Schultz – artwork
  • Sarah Wilmer – artwork

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse by Howard Fishman, published by Dutton (2023), ISBN 9780593187364

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Youngs, Ian (October 1, 2014). "Connie Converse: The mystery of the original singer-songwriter". BBC News. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Connie Converse – How Sad, How Lovely". AllMusic Guide. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Forster, Robert (June 2009). "Lost Women Found". The Monthly. Australia. Archived from the original on September 12, 2015. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Cima, Rosie (January 11, 2016). "How a 90-Year-Old Missing Person Became a Hit on Spotify". Priceonomics. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  5. ^ Roberts, Randall (February 13, 2009). "Throwbacks: Vinyl and digital reissues of note for winter-spring 2015". Entertainment & Arts. The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 22, 2015. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  6. ^ Paul, John (May 11, 2015). "Connie Converse: How Sad, How Lovely". PopMatters. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  7. ^ Kline, Greta (March 4, 2020). "My Favorite Album: Greta Kline of Frankie Cosmos on Connie Converse's "How Sad, How Lovely"". Under the Radar. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  8. ^ Sachs, Tony (May 25, 2011). "50 Years Late, Connie Converse Is Music's Next Big Thing". Huffington Post. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  9. ^ "How Sad, How Lovely". Captured Tracks. May 14, 2015. Archived from the original on October 30, 2015. Retrieved August 8, 2015.

External links[edit]

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