On November 11th 1620 the Mayflower dropped anchor on the shores of Cape Cod. It seems like it was a long time, but time is an illusion. If you don’t believe this, just give Marissa Nadler’s latest album a quick listen.
I am still quite suspicious when approaching anything the new freak folk movement has to offer, although finding out about Joanna Newsom made it all so brighter, it will take me some time to fully absorb this new genre. The first thing that captured my when approaching the Saga of Mayflower May are the strings. There are two strong elements in this record that rise high above anything else – the vocals and the strings. Actually, that almost covers up everything that happens on this record. But, oh, what strings are these. Let me just say that Marissa plays a 12 string guitar. I didn’t even know that such a thing exist, but what a joy it was to find out that it does. Just the idea of a guitar with 12 strings, being played by a woman with such a voice, is exciting.
The lyrics Marissa delivers are not always clear, and seem to float in some kind of a thick mist. And, when listening very good, you find out that it’s exactly where the words are. They are lost a in thick fog, drenched in a never existing past. Listening I feel as if I am floating higher and higher, every time she touches the strings, every time her voice covers my ears, I feel as I am being lifted one more feet up to the sky. At one point it seems as if after the record will end, I will never come back. But then it ends, and I come back. Well, it’s good to be here, so I will have the privilege to push the play button again and here her sing.

lily was a maiden in the castle sea
they found her in the forest where the wild willow be.
lily was a maiden in the castle sea
they found her in the forest where the wild willow be.
singing: “don’t plead me no, for I will seize you in the snow!”
singing: “don’t plead me no, for I will seize you in the snow!”
henry first saw lillian, girl of colored hair,
oh sitting by the river with the willows in her hair
lily hummed a tune he knew, a shanty from the sea,
he seized her by her little waist against the willow tree,
singing: “fare thee oh well, where you’ve gone no can tell!”
singing: “fare thee oh well, where you’ve gone no can tell!”
“oh you are worth a million silver pennies”, henry said to lillian.
“oh you are worth a million silver pennies”, henry said to lillian.
(alt. lyrics:
lily was a maiden in the castle sea, they found her drenched
in blood and sweat beneath the willow tress.
henry dagger proud and bare he sat a perched tree,
as lilian went to her death beneath the willow tree.)

Once you will listen the instant comparison is Hope Sondoval, but that’s just instant and you will soon find out that Mairssa has a voice of her own, unique and beautiful. You can find more stuff about the wonderful Marissa Nadler at her site. Where you can also find quite a few MP3s for download.