Heather Maloney and Darlingside
Woodstock
Signature Sounds 2063

www.signaturesounds.com
 

Things went “viral” long before anyone thought of the Internet. A hoofer breaks her leg and the understudy dances to fame and glory; an attractive woman is photographed in a World War II factory and Marilyn Monroe is discovered; John Phillips writes a song that won’t work with his trio and hands off “San Francisco” to his buddy Scott McKenzie; someone hears Mary Chapin Carpenter doing warm-up acts and throws her a contract … The only pattern is serendipity. Still, it’s pretty amazing that 28-year-old Heather Maloney has scored nearly 16,000 YouTube hits for her cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock,” which commemorates an event that was over twenty-seven years before she was born. In just four months, Maloney has gotten 25% as many hits as Mitchell singing her own version.

Western Massachusetts-based Heather Maloney is not a hippie wannabe, but a return to ’60s’ values would be fine by her. She admits feeling out of synch with her generation. “Hipster detachment is so not me. I’m a raw person [and] sensitive to a fault.” She’s written several songs critical of what she calls the “seen-it-all, unmoved, too-cool-to-care” crowd. She credits her mother, who was “a hippie, a feminist, and a psychotherapist” for inculcating some of her Woodstock-era values, as well as mom’s record collection: The Beatles, Dylan, CSNY, and Joni Mitchell being favorites–especially Mitchell.

Still, the decision for Maloney to team with innovative stringband Darlingside to create the EP Woodstock (Signature Sounds) was serendipitous, not intentional. Blame Baby Boomer Val Haller, who writes a column called “Music Match” for the New York Times–the goal being to expose her generation to the 20-somethings that cover classic ’60s songs. Haller liked Maloney’s music, played it on her Valslist.com site, and hosted a house party when Maloney and Darlingside were touring her home turf. “She didn’t know Darlingside until the concert in her living room,” Maloney recalls, but at the end of the evening she said, “If I closed my eyes it could have been Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young with Joni Mitchell.” Haller made the proverbial offer you can’t refuse: Make a video of a ’60s song and she’d feature it in her New York Times column. Maloney relates, “’Woodstock’ seemed like the obvious choice because it was done by both CSNY and Mitchell. Darlingside literally worked out the arrangement in the back of a van” – one that is a mid-tempo median between the two familiar versions. Haller posted the video, and it went viral.

It even got a shout out from Graham Nash. Three different people sent Nash the video, and he was smitten. Coincidentally, Maloney and Darlingside were in Kansas City for the Folk Alliance conference, whose keynote speaker was Nash speaking about connecting generations. Maloney admits she was awestruck when meeting Nash. “I’m a psycho Joni Mitchell fan and all I could think was ‘Wow! You got to hang out with Joni Mitchell.’ But he was sweet and has been a dear supporter ever since.” How’s this for a Nash promo? “I’m sure that Joni would love this wonderfully heartfelt version of her classic song.”

“Woodstock” is one of the EP’s five tracks. Darlingside penned the hauntingly bittersweet “You Forget” and the plinky, wistful “Whipporwill.” Another stunner is Maloney’s “No Shortcuts,” a soulful a cappella numbers that’s part hand-jive, part Motown, and part ’90s-era R & B shaped by what Maloney laughingly calls her “period of rebellion,” her adolescent embrace of pop idols such as Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men. “I think a lot of my vocalizations and inflections are straight out of Motown … but they probably came via ’90s’ music.” The direct inspiration for “No Shortcuts” was more pedestrian, though: “I wrote it while driving and was both meditative and distracted. I just needed to create space for other stuff in my mind.” She hastily sang her thoughts into her cellphone. Maloney wonders about her mind; now that she’s recorded “Woodstock” she’s says she “wouldn’t be the tiniest bit surprised” if Joni Mitchell was rattling around in her subconscious when she wrote “Dirt and Stardust,” her most-requested song. Think Mitchell’s line, “We are stardust/We are golden/And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.”

Maloney’s musical garden is a glorious mix of old and new. She likes the revivalist genre variously called acid folk, neo-psychedelia, and jam band music (think Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, and Perpetual Groove), but she’s an even bigger fan of performers such as Anais Mitchell, Josh Ritter, and indie folk artists “who are weaving in passion and commentary reflecting on the ways things are.” Old, new, passion, and talent. Going viral is here and now, but Maloney’s garden is planted with perennials.

— Rob Weir