Hem
Lullabies, it would seem, aren’t just for babies.
Some of Sally Ellyson’s fondest childhood memories, however, are the lullabies that her parents sang to her.
So as an adult, and at the encouragement of her own son, she enlisted the help of a friend in the music business to help her create a tape of those special songs to hand out to her friends with babies of their own.
Everyone was so moved by the sweetness of her voice that they encouraged her to pursue a career - or at least a hobby - of singing, and she dutifully promised that she would.
Her son, however, wouldn’t let those promises go unfulfilled and hounded her to look for some venues in which to sing. Finally, one day she picked up a two-week old Village Voice and answered an ad looking for a female vocalist. A trio of songwriters č Dan Meese, Gary Maurer and Steve Curtis č had been working on a batch of songs but none of them had the vocal skills they were looking for. They had placed the ad in the Voice, had received about 200 demo tapes from singers, none of them what they were looking for, and the ad had expired when Ellyson called Messe, who told her to send in a demo.
“I didn’t have a demo,” she said. “I was just trying to keep my promise that I’d do something to pursue singing.”
What she did have, however, was the tape of lullabies, but she only had one copy. So she took it over to Messe’s house and had him dub it.
Messe, who not having heard her sing wasn’t exactly thrilled about adding to the collection and probably wouldn’t even have listened to her tape. But he when he dubbed it, he left his copy in the tape machine, and a few days later accidentally pressed play and was amazed at what he heard.
“I couldn’t believe that voice existed,” he said. “We all sort of felt like it was ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ like the exact right person showed up at the exact right time to get us home.”
“I think their songs had a similar essence as the lullaby tape,” Ellyson said. “We draw from the same well.
“I don’t feel comfortable singing over the top,” she said, “but their songs are deep and strong, have sentiments. I sing in a way that feels like I’m holding them gently.”
Although they weren’t really making an album to become a band, they became one anyway, and seven years and three albums later, Hem has developed a large and loyal audience, playing with Elvis Costello, Beth Orton and Wilco, among others, and playing prestigious venues such as Jazz at Lincoln Center.
