Ives’ work inspires new Mallett Brothers Band CD, Press Herald reports
The Portland Press Herald reported University of Maine folklorist Edward “Sandy” Ives, who founded the Maine Folklife Center, inspired the Mallett Brothers Band’s latest CD, “The Falling of the Pine: Songs from the Maine Woods.” Will and Luke Mallett’s father, folk singer David Mallett, is an obvious musical influence, but their mother, Jayne Lello, also left her imprint, the Press Herald reported. The idea for the CD came after Will Mallett pulled the book, “Minstrelsy of Maine: Folk-Songs and Ballads of the Woods and Coast,” off Lello’s bookshelf. An anthropologist and librarian, Lello worked alongside Ives as an undergraduate student at UMaine in the 1970s and remained friends with him until his death in 2009, according to the article. Together, they collected and archived hundreds of folks songs. Ives made vinyl recordings of some of the Maine songs featured in “Minstrelsy of Maine” with traditional folk arrangements as part of his research at UMaine in the 1960s. With this record, the Malletts re-imagine them, matching the lyrics with instruments and musical sensibilities of today, the article states. “I wish Sandy were alive to see this,” Lello said. “I know other people who sing, but I think the boys did a wonderful job with this project. They are inspired by the songs and stories, and I think they interpreted them beautifully.” The Bangor Daily News and VillageSoup also published an article on the group’s new album.