In Memoriam: David Mallett (April 21, 1951 – December 17, 2024)
A chronicler of small town life, a celebrant of the rhythms of the seasons and nature, a poet of the small beauties of life, and an advocate of social justice, folk singer and songwriter David Mallett died on December 17, 2024.
Mallett was born and lived most of his life in Sebec, Maine. When he was 11, he and his brother, Neil, formed a folk duo and had their own television show for a few seasons. While he was studying at the University of Maine, Mallett began listening to and playing the songs of Bob Dylan and Gordon Lightfoot. He soon started writing his own songs. He released his debut self-titled album in 1978, which included the song for which he became best known: “Garden Song.”
Millions of listeners have furrowed their backyard plots and dropped seeds into the even rows to the lilting rhymes of David Mallett’s 1975 “Garden Song”: “Inch by inch/row by row/gonna make this garden grow.” When Mallett learned that Noel Paul Stookey was opening a recording studio in Blue Hill, Maine, he scheduled a session there. When Stookey heard “Garden Song,” he mentioned it to Pete Seeger, and Seeger recorded it on his 1979 album Circles & Seasons, and numerous other artists, including John Denver, went on to record it.
While “Garden Song” evoked the images and themes of Mallett’s music, his evocative baritone and gentle fingerpicking filled all of his music with an emotional depth that resonated with his listeners. He was a captivating storyteller who delivered ballads about the sometimes gentle, sometimes harsh and devastating ups and downs of life.
In the late 1980s, Mallett moved to Nashville for a short time. Marty Stuart (“Hometown Heroes”), Kathy Mattea (“Summer of My Dreams”), Alison Krauss (“Never Got Off the Ground”), Emmylou Harris, and Hal Ketchum, among others, recorded his songs.
Mallett released 17 albums between 1978 and 2016’s Celebration, including 2007’s The Fable True, based on stories in Thoreau’s The Maine Woods, and 2009’s Alright Now, which included a tribute to daughter Molly called “Beautiful.” Many call Mallett’s song “Ballad of St. Anne’s Reel,” from his second album, a folk classic.
Tributes to Mallett poured in on social media. In her Facebook post, Eliza Gilkyson called him a “true troubadour with good politics and a social conscience, a venerable folk singer, and all around very decent human being.” Nashville singer songwriter Irene Kelly called Mallett “one of my very favorite singer songwriters of our time,” recalling being spellbound when she saw him perform “I Picture You” at a festival in New Hampshire in 2003.
We celebrate the life and music of David Mallett and we are grateful for the enduring ways his songs have shaped, and continue to shape, our lives.
###
See below for some of our David Mallett favorites.
“Garden Song”
“Ballad of the St. Anne’s Reel”
“Fire”
