Sometimes wonderful music goes unheard. Despite her extraordinary talent, Connie Converse struggled to find recognition during her lifetime. Converse was among the first modern singer-songwriters, a truly unique artist whose unconventional, hypnotically intimate songs were far ahead of their time.
Now 15 years after the original release we are proud to release a very special expanded edition of How Sad, How Lovely, the landmark first compilation of previously lost recordings from groundbreaking cult singer-songwriter Connie Converse.
It’s a misfit track and something I actually overlooked for years. There are two known sources of her Musicks collection: the original reel(s) that Connie sent to her brother, and a dub of that which she made and kept for herself. I transferred her dub but never paid much attention to it, since it was an inferior quality copy of her brother’s original. But when I was restoring the MUSICKS material, I was looking through the recorded file of her Musicks dub and noticed there was actually an extra song, seemingly detached from the others; it was something I had never heard. I checked my scan of the original tape box and, sure enough, very lightly tagged in pencil was: 2/2/61 “MUCH SPLICED” reel now begins with a demo of my “HOUSE” song for Bill Bernal.
The date 2/2/1961 means it was one of the first things she did after leaving NYC, making a new home for herself in Ann Arbor. It’s a rehearsal tape and you can hear her developing the song across a couple takes. Unfortunately her best performance is garbled, in part, by a distorted tape malfunction. So, to present it here for the 7” single, I have edited her best takes together.
- Producer Dan Dzula
