Hear Uncovered 1950s Folk Track “Talkin’ Like You (Two Tall Mountains)” from Connie Converse

February 2nd, 2015

Nina Corcoran

Six years ago, boutique label Squirrel Thing put out an album of unearthed folk songs by the mysterious singer-songwriter Connie Converse. The album, How Sad, How Lovely, features back-to-back lo-fi recordings of intimate folk from the 1950s that Converse recorded in her Greenwich Village apartment. It’s available on vinyl for the first time on March 17 via Omnian Music Group and album track “Talkin’ Like You (Two Tall Mountains)” is already streaming. It’s well spoken and warm, the kind of lullaby your mother sings to you before bed and you secretly long for years after you’ve fled the coop. What makes Converse’s music so magical, however, is the story behind it.

Connie Converse was born in New Hampshire in 1924. She went to Mt. Holyoke College, dropped out at age 22, and packed her bags for New York City where she fell into the city’s folk scene with help from animator Gene Deitch and his friend Bill Bernal. The two got her a spot on the CBS Morning Show and her plaintive storytelling lit the room. But by the time 1961 rolled around, she left for Ann Arbor and, come 1974, fled once again for the final time. With a series of goodbye notes left on her dresser for friends and family, Connie Converse got in her car and disappeared — and she hasn’t been heard from since.

Give “Talkin’ Like You (Two Tall Mountains)” a listen below: