Connie Converse, singer-songwriter mystery

06 Aug 23 - 09:21 PM (#4178577)
Subject: Connie Converse, singer-songwriter mystery
From: Stilly River Sage

The mysterious story of Connie Converse, the singer-songwriter who vanished is another version of a story I read fairly recently, about this woman called "a precursor to Bob Dylan," and it dawned on me with this reading that it may be of interest to some of you.

The singer-songwriter Connie Converse has been described by fans as a precursor to Bob Dylan. But when she made music in New York City in the early to mid-1950s, no one paid much attention. So she left the music scene to start a new life. Then one day in 1974, Converse and her music disappeared.

Decades later, in 2009, a few early recordings were released for the first time and suddenly Connie Converse had an audience. Ever since, those fans have been working to share her music and story with the world. One of them, author and musician Howard Fishman, published a comprehensive biography of Converse in May titled To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse. And now a new album containing 32 songs will be released Aug. 11. It's a recording Converse made herself, at home in 1956. She called it Musicks. Fishman joined NPR's Eyder Peralta to talk about the enigmatic singer and composer. Hear the complete radio story above.

Eyder Peralta: For those of us who don't know her, who is Connie Converse?

Howard Fishman: She was a trailblazing pioneering music maker in the 1950s, whose music has only recently been discovered and given the recognition it deserves. She grew up in New Hampshire, went to college at Mount Holyoke, dropped out, and moved to New York City to pursue being a writer. After being there for a few years, Converse began delving into making music at a time when the music she made really had no context. Although she had a fanbase among people that heard her in living rooms and in salon settings, she was never able to break through commercially because record company executives didn't feel like there was any way to market her music. Then in 1961, convinced that the music industry was not going to be able to do anything with her after all, she left New York and moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., to start a new life.

At some point she disappears. So we know nothing about her after that?

Right. After deciding that music maybe wasn't the avenue that was going to be open for her, she left and for the next decade worked as a social justice champion, working in conflict resolution, working against police brutality. And then she disappeared completely in 1974. She wrote letters to family and friends saying that she was going to start a new life somewhere and not to come looking for her, and she has never been heard from again.

Follow the link for the rest. NPR generally has durable links so I don't need to post the whole thing here.

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07 Aug 23 - 11:39 AM (#4178643)
Subject: RE: Connie Converse, singer-songwriter mystery
From: matt milton

I recently read the biography. She comes across as as an astonishing polymath, an intellectual powerhouse.

I've long been a fan of the album 'How Sad How Lovely' and, thankfully, someone's just released a whole slew of her home recordings, entitled 'Musicks'

https://connieconverse.bandcamp.com/

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07 Aug 23 - 12:27 PM (#4178647)
Subject: RE: Connie Converse, singer-songwriter mystery
From: Stilly River Sage

The grand portrait of a hard-luck singer who disappeared

A book review by John Lingan in The Washington Post.

In the words of Howard Fishman, whose biography of Converse, “To Anyone Who Ever Asks,” culminates his 12-year odyssey to understand this beguiling talent, her work exists “out of time, out of music history altogether."

The book by Fishman, a musician and New Yorker contributor, appears to be an eBook only. Amazon.

This is the mesmerizing story of an enigmatic life. When musician and New Yorker contributor Howard Fishman first heard Connie Converse’s voice on a recording, he was convinced she could not be real. Her recordings were too good not to know, and too out of place for the 1950s to make sense—a singer who seemed to bridge the gap between traditional Americana (country, blues, folk, jazz, and gospel), the Great American Songbook, and the singer-songwriter movement that exploded a decade later with Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.

And then there was the bizarre legend about Connie Converse that had become the prevailing narrative of her life: that in 1974, at the age of fifty, she simply drove off one day and was never heard from again. Could this have been true? Who was Connie Converse, really?

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10 Mar 24 - 09:50 PM (#4198883)
Subject: RE: Connie Converse, singer-songwriter mystery
From: Thomas Stern

Elizabeth Eaton Converse (1924 - disappeared 1974)
2 years at Mount Holyoke College, then to New York City.

music composed and recorded in the 1950's compared to
Dylan, Carter Family, Robert Johnson.

Left NY in 1960 to Ann Arbor.
 
a documentary, includes interviews with Phil & Jean Converse (brother and sister-in-law), Gene Deitch (famous illustrator - covers of
Record Changer and cartoons, late 40's, animator-Tom & Jerry), and
Tim Converse (nephew).
We Lived Alone: The Connie Converse Documentary

Recordings:
Connie Converse - How Sad, How Lovely

Book:
To Anyone Who Ever Asks-THE LIFE, MUSIC, AND MYSTERY OF ONNIE CONVERSE
By Howard Fishman
DUTTON, 2023.

GUARDIAN review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/11/to-anyone-who-ever-asks-by-howard-fishman-review-vanishing-act

THE NEW YORKER November 21, 2016
Connie Converse’s Time Has Come
By Howard Fishman
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/connie-converses-time-has-come

New York Times - Published Aug. 11, 2022 Updated Aug. 17, 2022
The Art of Disappearance
Some might hear the music of Connie Converse, who drove off without a trace in 1974, as a haunting record of depression. But what about the liberation?
By Hanif Abdurraqib
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/magazine/connie-converse-disappearance.html


ANYONE KNOW HER ????
Thoughts on her music ????

Thanks, Thomas.

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