Little Mary Phagan (2001) uses an a cappella recording as a starting point, performed by my good friend and frequent collaborator D.M.Ingalls. The song was taught to him by a friend years prior in Berkeley, CA, and taught to her by her mother as a lullaby when she was a toddler. It always struck me as a quintessential American song, based as it is on a true story which intertwines capitalism, violence and racism.

My goal was to turn the solo voice into a chorus of sorts using a series of cascading delays. The effect of the various delays is a complex of shifting harmonies and rhythms which exaggerates the original performance and provides improvised commentary on the content as the tune unfolds.



Download Little Mary Phagan mp3 here.