Mallory Chipman would love for you to come see the gorgeous wild plains of her homeland of Alberta.
“Part of me has always thought that if folks could see it with their own eyes, they would feel the same way I do about this place being sacred and worth protecting,” said Chipman. “We as humans are part of this nature. We as humans are nature protecting itself when we take action.”
On Songs To A Wild God, Chipman expands on her activism and spiritual connection to nature to create one of the more moving albums focused on environmentalism. The plea she makes is beautiful, multifaceted, and dire. It also regularly mentions waking up to the fact that there’s a problem. Recent summers have done that for Chipman, as wildfire smoke from British Colombia or even a national park in Alberta have made her skies hazy. One of her friends even became a climate refugee after losing her home and instruments to a wildfire.
“Most folks have work life balance and daily patterns they need to uphold just to get by. It can be really easy to let some of these collective responsibilities fall to the side, which I have a lot of empathy for,” said Chipman. “Until we have seen the destruction, we often don’t realize we’re capable of it. Sometimes we’re reminded that things are more dire than we think.”
“Saltwater Tears” underlines that urgency and hints at the album’s title with an encounter with a street preacher. He is predicting the end of the world and Chipman agrees, though not for the religious reasons he’d expect. “We’ve been praying to the wrong God the whole damn time,” she sings.
“Old Man River” hints at this conversion. In describing a decaying ecosystem, Chipman sings “I ask myself why didn’t I care until now,” hinting strongly that it’s too late in this case.
Chipman benefits from a clear voice with a range that reaches to the skies. Though she’s tended toward indie rock thus far in her career, she’s a natural fit for folk music like this. The high notes she hits on tracks like “Sing Me Home” are impressive and sound a bit like birdsong. That, of course, feels right at home on an album like this.
“Mystic Time” is the one song on the album not rooted in nature and tells an extraordinary story of Chipman first discovering her heritage. Her father, who was adopted, did not discover where he came from until later in his life. Chipman sings of familiarizing herself with a culture and the hole in her history that was suddenly filled. On an album that serves as a warning call, a happy story is welcome.
“Same Hands” is a standout both for its dreamy sound and the loss of innocence story it tells. It follows a young Chipman exploring her natural surroundings, picking lilies and bringing frogs home from the creek.
“I’ve always found a lot of kinship with these creatures. It was this innocent perspective of looking for friendship. Unfortunately, the next day they were belly up in their aquarium,” said Chipman. “I realized I can do as much damage as I can do good. As adults, that’s still true.”
Chipman acknowledges that in an age of short attention spans, helping the environment can be a difficult concept to grasp. She points to her work removing invasive species near her home as an example of one of the speedier ways to make progress.
“You’re able to very quickly see when you come back the next summer how much more room there is for native plants. Even that, when I say it’s a shorter term thing, that’s a year away,” said Chipman.“We’re so used to instant gratification. The results are going to look different than that. Hopefully that’s not too discouraging.”
The album ends with an appreciative song about time spend in the wild and that invitation to Alberta. There are dire warnings on this album, but Chipman preferred to end it on notes of joyful reverence. It’s a leap of faith that people could be inspired to truly change, but for Chipman, the natural world and faith are quite intertwined
Above is the full episode as aired on WUSB’s Country Pocket, including both my interview with Mallory Chipman and the songs we discussed, starting with Saltwater Tears, which deals with themes as heavy as the end times and Earth crying. The interview begins with the second video in the playlist. You can hear the show live every Tuesday at 12pm on WUSB 90.1 FM or check the blog to watch it as a YouTube playlist. Visit http://www.WUSB.fm and https://www.mallorychipmanmusic.com for more.
Country Pocket 