Hem
New single “Sailor (Remastered 2025)” out now
Rabbit Songs
25th anniversary LP reissue out November 28
Available for first time on vinyl
Groundbreaking, Brooklyn indie roots music collective Hem has shared new single “Sailor (Remastered 2025)”, a second peek at the 25th anniversary reissue of iconic album Rabbit Songs (Waveland Records), out November 28. The LP will be available on digital and for the first time, vinyl. Pre-save link
First released independently to widespread acclaim in 2000, the 16 tracks on Rabbit Songs have all been freshly remastered for the 25th anniversary reissue. The digital release will include the bonus track “St. Charlene,” a tune from the Rabbit Songs era that previously was found only on a hard-to-find EP.
Hem Rabbit Songs biography by Peter Blackstock:
“When we were playing through ‘Half Acre’ and we heard the sound, it just clicked. It was like, wait a minute, we could actually do this.” Dan Messé remembers that moment in the studio when an upstart Brooklyn ensemble called Hem began recording their debut album, Rabbit Songs. Messé had been working for months with his friends and fellow musicians Gary Maurer and Steve Curtis on a batch of richly melodic songs that needed a hauntingly beautiful voice. They found it at that session when Sally Ellyson began to sing: “I am holding half an acre, torn from the map of Michigan…”
Hem’s origin story seemed fated from the start, in particular how they found Ellyson. The band had placed a two-line ad in the Village Voice in April 1999 that read simply: “Female singer wanted for alt folk country record.” Messé fielded enough responses from singers who weren’t what he was looking for that he began to get discouraged, so when Ellyson called, he almost brushed her off. But she gave him a cassette of a cappella lullabyes she’d made for family and friends, and he knew as soon as he hit “play” that it was something special. So much so, in fact, that a 25-second snippet taken directly from that cassette became the opening track on Rabbit Songs.
Hem celebrates the 25th anniversary of Rabbit Songs this fall with the album’s first-ever vinyl release plus a digital version, fully remastered. The digital release will include the bonus track “St. Charlene,” a tune from the Rabbit Songs era that previously was found only on a hard-to-find EP. It’s the first volley in a reintroduction of sorts to a band that never really broke up, but got back-burnered while its members were moving away from Brooklyn and raising families. Messé recently relocated to Philadelphia to be near family; Curtis now lives in New Haven, Connecticut, and Ellyson moved south to Virginia. Only Maurer remains in Brooklyn. But they’ve been recording new material, with plans for a new album to follow the Rabbit Songs reissue (and likely future vinyl reissues of earlier Hem records).
In its initial incarnation, Rabbit Songs built momentum slowly but surely. After a limited self-release in 2000 and a U.K. release on Setanta in 2001, the record gained wider attention when prominent indie Bar/None issued it in 2002. Then came major label Dreamworks, which re-released it in July 2003, but the absorption of Dreamworks into Interscope after Universal bought the label limited the album’s visibility. It got another life in 2005 when Rounder Records reissued it after releasing the band’s 2004 album Eveningland. More fans came aboard in 2006 when insurance company Liberty Mutual featured “Half Acre” in a widely-viewed TV commercial. Rabbit Songs received widespread acclaim from prominent outlets such as NPR, which said of Ellyson’s voice: “All around her, piano notes fall like raindrops, even as she sings about the flames of her heart climbing higher, a heat that makes the rain of the music evaporate into mist.”
“It’s beloved by the people who found it, but it wasn’t found by as many people I think would really enjoy it,” Messé says of the band’s desire to get Rabbit Songs back out into the world. “It was such an important part of our lives. I think our work in general is so much about memory, and about how the past affects the present. There should be a thread that connects you from where you started to where you are now. And I think it’s important to maintain the integrity of that thread.”
Photo credit: Anna Williams