Last night we saw Eleri Ward at Joe’s Pub in New York City. It will sound like hyperbole, but a star was indeed born last night. During her 70-minute set she held the audience fully captive in her hands with beautiful performances of songs from this album and also her first-ever performance of Another Hundred People from Company. Plus she was joined by Eden Espinosa and Donna Murphy. So when she returns to Joe’s Pub or anywhere else grab a ticket as soon as you can!
No one is more surprised at the success of her recordings of the songs of Stephen Sondheim than Eleri Ward. Born out of posting online videos, what started out as a lark become a full-fledged album on Ghostlight Records called A Perfect Little Death.
On her record Ward sings songs you might expect like Being Alive (from Company), Losing My Mind (from Follies) and Send in the Clowns (from A Little Night Music). She also chooses some less commonly recorded songs like Loving You (from Passion), Sunday (from Sunday in the Park with George) and Every Day a Little Death (from A Little Night Music.) The last song includes a lyric that gave Ward her album’s title.
The style of Ward’s performances mixes Sondheim’s songs with the alternative-indie style of Sufjan Stevens. The end result has prompted multiple people to comment on how this is just the right music for our troubled times. As Ward told me when we spoke via Zoom last week.
What follows are excerpts from my conversation with Eleri Ward that have been edited for length and clarity.
Does the reaction you’ve received to your recordings of these songs surprise you? And that people say this was the music they didn’t know they needed but are glad they have?
It is surprising because I guess this is just how my brain works and this is just kind of how I have heard things. And so it feels natural to me. I suppose it does make sense because when have we ever heard these songs and in just a way where it’s acoustic guitar and vocal? It’s so crazy to me that that is something that multiple people have said to me. I’m like, that’s awesome, because this is how I want to make them.
Do you think part of the response you’ve gotten is because of how complicated the last 18 months have been?
Given the past year and a half, it does make sense. It’s like everyone obviously loves Sondheim and like these songs are iconic and amazing, but when you’re in the middle of a pandemic do you really want to hear the Sweeney whistle blowing in your ear like problems?
When you started posted videos online of these songs was the goal to make an album?
I didn’t even really realize that this is what it was until I set out to record the album. But to take these songs that obviously are universal and strip them back and kind of make them raw and even more naked was something that I was like, what is that like? What can these songs say when they are truly just like bare bones? When it comes to the original orchestrations of all of these songs they are quite complicated and full and huge. What can those stories also illuminate when they are simple? And so that’s kind of like what my my take on them has been.
The recordings seem so effortless. Do you believe in the idea of the artist as a vessel? That the work came through you?
Creativity grows in a garden more lushly when there’s a fence around it. If you take that fence away it can just spread out and it is not as dense. And I feel like within this situation, I had a very clear fence around my creativity. It’s like these are not my songs. So I automatically have very little ego about certain parts of it. So it was very selfless in that way. And then when it came to arrangement, it’s like, OK, the melody is the melody, like that’s what I’m sticking with. And now the arrangement can just like flourish off of that confine. And so I feel like having those boundaries around my creative process is what allowed me to be the vessel and not have really any part of me be glued to it. It’s it was a very freeing situation.
Have you seen Sondheim’s shows?
I have definitely seen Company. I’ve been in Company. I’ve seen Sweeney Todd multiple times. Company and Sweeney Todd are my favorites shows. I’ve been in Merrily We Roll Along. I’ve seen Merrily multiple times. Follies I’ve seen. I don’t think I’ve ever thought about this. I think that might be it. Oh, and I’ve seen Sunday in the Park with George.
The reason for asking is that you’re too young to have seen some of his shows. I’m wondering what your thoughts are about audiences embracing them years after their original run more than they did when they were first produced?
I think his honesty can manifest itself in a very raw, dark human way that prior to him, I don’t know if I can name that many writers or shows that offer that darkness just as it is. It’s dark, but it’s human and like I know you’re thinking it, so why not just accept it? Anyone who is a pioneer in their path is always going to be met with skepticism and distance at first because it’s new. And on top of that his orchestrations are not something that you just turn on and like have a pleasant little cup of tea, too. He’s spot on. He’s totally right. And I feel seen and I feel heard.
What has A Perfect Little Death and its success revealed to you about who you are as an artist and as a person?
It’s emotional to me how much it has kind of enlightened my life. I don’t make folk music or acoustic music and yet now I do. I didn’t know that my sound would be kind of identified by this, like breathy yodel-y thing that I do. And now I think all the things that I’ve done with this album are very true to who I really am, but I have never given the spotlight to or given the chance to fully embrace all of them. I think it’s allowing me to be surprised by myself and allow all of those surprises to be valid and embraced. I don’t have to question any of them or, you know, denounce any of them or distance myself from any of them or try to be humble about any of them. It’s like this is all who I am. I might not have known that all of these things were who I was meant to be X amount of time ago. But they are now and I can’t deny it. And I’m not going to deny myself the things that I’ve surprised myself with. I think that’s the biggest thing is it’s been full of surprises in terms of learning about myself, not only as a person, but as an artist.
Photo: Eleri Ward (Courtesy Ghostlight Records)