Dave Mallet, singer, songwriter, composer, activist, from Sebec, Maine was sort of always around. You could hear him at local clubs, colleges, celebrations, fairs. He sang a lot about everyday life in his home state. But we knew he was a big-time name outside of the local area, and we knew other artists were singing his songs. In 2019, Dave asked my band to play and call some dances at his daughter’s surprise birthday party and pre-wedding party at a bar/club in Freeport, Maine. Dave was just sitting in the corner watching and enjoying the show. I didn’t even know he was there. Well, he didn’t want to make it about HIM, I guess.  Dave has performed many times at Maine’s Common Ground Country Fair (most recently in 2023), and lately has been performing with his two sons, Will and Luke, who tour as “The Mallett Brothers,” (sometimes Dave is a 3th brother!)

Dave’s song “The Garden Song” was written in the mid-’70s and first recorded at Noel Paul Stookey’s recording studio in East Blue Hill. Seems like everyone sings the Garden Song and I’ve heard over a hundred have recorded it. My favorite Mallett song is “The Ballad of Ste. Anne’s Reel.” This piece weaves the actual Acadian fiddle tune, Ste. Annes Reel, into an original song. I did a little searching for videos and there are plenty of them. One of my favorites is Dave performing with the Franklin County Fiddlers (a high school group led by Steve Muise), and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lucas Richman. I wish you could actually hear the orchestra in this recording. Lucas Richman is an amazing conductor, but you get the idea, I think.

Here’s another take:

Here’s David’s obit:

A chronicler of small town life, a celebrant of the rhythms of the seasons and nature, a poet of the small beauties of life, and an advocate of social justice, folk singer and songwriter David Mallett died on December 17, 2024.

Mallett was born and lived most of his life in Sebec, Maine. When he was 11, he and his brother, Neil, formed a folk duo and had their own television show for a few seasons. While he was studying at the University of Maine, Mallett began listening to and playing the songs of Bob Dylan and Gordon Lightfoot. He soon started writing his own songs. He released his debut self-titled album in 1978, which included the song for which he became best known: “Garden Song.”

Millions of listeners have furrowed their backyard plots and dropped seeds into the even rows to the lilting  rhymes of David Mallett’s 1975 “Garden Song”: “Inch by inch/row by row/gonna make this garden grow.” When  Mallett learned that Noel Paul Stookey was opening a recording studio in Blue Hill, Maine, he scheduled a session there. When Stookey heard “Garden Song,” he mentioned it to Pete Seeger, and Seeger recorded it on his 1979 album Circles & Seasons, and numerous other artists, including John Denver, went on to record it.

While “Garden Song” evoked the images and themes of Mallett’s music, his evocative baritone and gentle fingerpicking filled all of his music with an emotional depth that resonated with his listeners. He was a captivating storyteller who delivered ballads about the sometimes gentle, sometimes harsh and devastating ups and downs of life.

In the late 1980s, Mallett moved to Nashville for a short time. Marty Stuart (“Hometown Heroes”), Kathy Mattea (“Summer of My Dreams”), Alison Krauss (“Never Got Off the Ground”), Emmylou Harris, and Hal Ketchum, among others, recorded his songs.

Mallett released seventeen albums between 1978 and 2016’s Celebration, including 2007’s The Fable True, based on  stories in Thoreau’s The Maine Woods, and 2009’s Alright Now, which included a tribute to daughter Molly called “Beautiful.” Many call Mallett’s song “Ballad of St. Anne’s Reel,” from his second album, a folk classic.

We celebrate the life and music of David Mallett and we are grateful for the enduring ways his songs have shaped, and continue to shape, our lives.

And here’s a little more info courtesy of a Google search:

Urged by Nanci Griffith to go to Nashville, Mallett moved his family there in the mid-’80s. He stayed for 10 years and sold his share of cuts to singers such as Kathy Mattea and Emmylou Harris. But he never liked the hustle and bustle of the town or the business. He’s more of a handshake kind of guy, and the everyday corporate approach to music did not sit well. Wanting to raise his kids in Maine and to return to his roots, Mallett moved the family back to his home state in the mid-’90s. He lives there today in the house where he grew up. He writes songs, drives old cars and tends his 200 acres when he isn’t touring. For Mallett, life and music ring as pure and true as a freshly cut field. “I’ve always felt you have an obligation to the place you came from,” he says. Mallett toured the folk circuit for 10 years, then moved to Nashville in the late ’80s where he continued to write and record. In Nashville, with the help of veteran producer, Jim Rooney, he recorded three albums for Chicago-based Flying Fish Records and two collections for Vanguard. His songs were recorded by Marty Stuart, Hal Ketchum, Emmylou Harris, Kathy Mattea, Allison Kraus, and others. Meanwhile his “Ballad of St. Anne’s Reel,” from his second album, became in international folk classic.

In 2014, the University of Maine gave Mallett an honorary doctorate in recognition of his contribution to the state’s cultural heritage. He was named one of the most memorable Mainers of the 20th century in the millennium edition of The Bangor Daily News (along with Marshall Dodge, Andrew Wyeth, E.B. White, Stephen King, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and others).

Mallett performed at (Maine) Governor Janet Mills’ second inauguration, in 2023, and has performed at the Blaine House several times during her time in office. Mills posted on X that she was “deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my friend.” She referred to Mallett as the “living embodiment” of Maine.

Here’s what some think of as the finest performance ever recorded of Garden Song – in 1993. Accompanied by Mark O’Connor, Jerry Douglas, and other notables – what a great band! “Many people think of this as a children’s song; when Dave Mallett sings it, it’s a working man’s song.”

Take some time and read some of the YouTube comments! Here’s one of them: “John Denver was a great performer and he certainly deserves a lot of credit for making this song well known. I will only say that Dave’s performance makes me believe that he not only knows what it’s like to till a vegetable garden by hand but has a passion for it. I don’t hear that in anyone else’s.”

Finally, here’s a concert and interview from 2010 at Husson College’s Gracie Theater in Bangor, Maine:

See you all next month! – bill