Basic Folk podcast, eps. 310 – Kris Delmhorst
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Kris Delmhorst is not a good sleeper. The Western Massachusetts songwriter is usually awake between the late night hours of 2 or 3 am to about 4 or 5am. Sometimes it’s nice and floaty, but other times she is wide awake worrying about anything her brain can get a hold of. This is the feeling that I believed she ended us with on her tenth record Ghosts in the Garden with the song “Something to Show.” However, thankfully she set me straight and explained that, indeed, it is a hopeful prayer that she will have something to show for all the questioning, trying, pushing through and general work that she, and fellow humans are doing. Too bad it can’t happen in the daylight hours. We talk about this and the other themes and songs on the new album like the unbearable emotional density of Summer ending, ambient restlessness during destruction, carrying unresolved loves and, of course, death.
Kris experienced a great loss in 2021 with the death of her dear friend and collaborator Billy Conway. Her husband, Jeffrey Foucault, memorialized Billy in his 2024 album The Universal Fire, which he called “a working wake” for their friend. He appeared on Basic Folk and spoke at length about Billy and what he meant to the Boston music community. I encourage you to listen to that conversation and Jeff’s record. Kris had known Billy for many decades, he produced a couple of her early albums and had been a huge presence in her life. The title track addresses Billy’s death, which sounds like it was a beautiful one, something that not very many people experience. He was surrounded by a houseful of friends and family celebrating and keeping him company up until the moment he died.
There are many types of ghosts on the album: lost loves and past mistakes and roads not taken, and our possible futures too. The record was recorded at Great Northern Sound in rural Maine, which is set inside an 1800’s farmhouse that must keep its own ghosts. Kris, a great lover of collaboration, has lots of guest vocalists like Rose Cousins, Anaïs Mitchell, Ana Egge, Taylor Ashton, Rachel Baiman, Anna Tival and KD’s husband, Jeffrey Foucault. I was so surprised to learn that she had not actually planned for any guest vocalists. She made the decision, recorded some reference mixes in Maine and listened on the drive home. She was startled to discover that she heard each guest vocalist on the track with her in the car, which prompted her to write some emails and get them all on the record. The songs want what the songs want, so you better give it to them or else…. more ghosts?
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