“The bands also mirror each other from top to bottom. It was this deeper part of me saying, ‘It’s OK if this sounds completely crazy, OK to just go with the completely crazy thing and not worry if people think you have lost your mind for doing it.’ There were nights when I wanted to just scream. I wrote that in the middle of the pandemic. “‘I Lost my Mind’ is the center of the Russian doll. So as you go in from both ends, the songs are sort of matched together,” Salvant says. “All the songs on the album kind of mirror each other. So it is the first track but it’s also the last track and it’s also the middle track, which is how I listen to music, walking around my neighborhood, on a plane, travelling somewhere, putting stuff on repeat.” I wanted the album to be a circle, with the sean-nós reference at the beginning and at the end. They parallel each other so well and they’re such different time periods. The ghost is not haunting me now I am haunting the ghost. Then I had the idea to mix it in with the sean-nós ‘Cúirt Bhaile Nua,’ which binds it to the traditional ‘Unquiet Grave,’ the last track on the album.
I decided I wanted to do an album called Ghost Song, and I knew that one had to be on it. She continues, “It’s the most classic ghost story.
And the best interpretation of the novel is Kate Bush’s song.” On track one, she transitions into Kate Bush’s 1978 classic “Wuthering Heights.” Salvant says of the song, “Wuthering Heights is a book that really struck me to my core as I was making this album, during the pandemic. Ghost Song opens and ends with a sean-nós (traditional Irish unaccompanied vocal style) performance by Salvant, recorded in a church. I’ve had some loss the last couple of years: my grandmother, the drummer in my band. Salvant says of the title track, out now, “What if the love has gone, the love has left you and you have the emotions around that, and you’re still going through them, still engaging with the ghost of that love?” She continues, “Some songs are so painful to come out but this one came out pretty quickly. Cécile McLorin Salvant is on tour in Europe now and will play four shows at SFJAZZ in February and two nights featuring the music of Ghost Song at Jazz at Lincoln Center in May for details and tickets, visit /on-tour. Ghost Song may be pre-ordered here Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an exclusive, limited edition signed artwork by Salvant while they last. I’m embracing my weirdness!” A video for the album track “Ghost Song,” written by Salvant, can be seen below. Salvant says, “It’s unlike anything I’ve done before-it’s getting closer to reflecting my personality as an eclectic curator. The new album features a diverse mix of seven originals and five interpretations on the themes of ghosts, nostalgia, and yearning. Singer/songwriter Cécile McLorin Salvant makes her Nonesuch Records debut with the release of Ghost Song on Ma.