Artist description Hem explores the last two centuries of American music with a very modern sensibility. The music somehow sounds both incredibly lush and hauntingly spare; the high-lonesome sound of a mandolin surrounded by an eighteen piece orchestra; a pedal-steel guitar accented by a glockenspiel; It's as if Cole Porter, the Carter Family, and the Rolling Stones collaborated on a record.

Music Style Folk/Country

Musical Influences Carter Family, Rolling Stones, Aaron Copland

Similar Artists Cowboy Junkies, Chet Baker, Tom Waits, Ella Fitzgerald

Artist History Hem formed in the spring of 1999, when Dan Messe (piano, glockenspiel, harmonium), Gary Maurer (guitar, mandolin), and Steve Curtis (guitar, mandolin) decided to make an album that would combine their interest in older traditional styles of American music with an alternative sensibility.But Hem needed a singer, so the quest for the perfect voice began. After receiving endless bizarre demo tapes as a result of a Village Voice ad, the band decided to pull the ad and concentrate on finding the right voice through their personal connections. Right about that time, Dan received a call from a woman named Sally responding to the Voice Ad. She said that she wasn't really a "singer" and had never even stood in front of a microphone before, but she had a notion that she wanted to "give it a try." Dan was skeptical, to say the least, and asked Sally to send him a demo just to get her off the phone. When Dan finally heard this tape of Sally, unaccompanied, singing some old lullabies, he could not believe his ears. A voice so simple and beautiful, sounding both utterly new and a hundred years old. The perfect voice for Hem.The resulting album, titled "Rabbit Songs" was finished this past April. The record opens with a fragment of the actual homemade tape that Sally made for Dan. From there the album delves into an exploration of the last two centuries of American music filtered through a very modern perspective. The music somehow sounds both incredibly lush and hauntingly spare; the high-lonesome sound of a mandolin surrounded by an eighteen piece orchestra; a pedal-steel guitar accented by a glockenspiel; It's as if Cole Porter, the Carter Family, and the Rolling Stones collaborated on a record.The album was recorded at Stratosphere Studio in New York City, mixed at Sear Sound and mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound. Gary, who has worked as an engineer/producer for such artists as Luna, Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, Richard Davies, Cornershop, Eszter Balint, John Spencer Blues Explosion, and James Iha, recorded and mixed the record.

Group Members Steve Curtis, Sally Ellyson, Gary Maurer, Dan Messé

Instruments Guitars, Mandolins, Pedal Steel, Piano, Glockenspiel, Drums, Double Bass, Violin, Orchestra

Albums Rabbit Songs

Location Brooklyn, New York - USA

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