"I'm a rambling woman / Mouth spilling questions / Sunlit self possession / A pink dawn phantom / I cannot fathom why I'm here..."
The beautiful rustic pulse and coursing folk blood of "What Once Was" by meka, the musical moniker of American singer-songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Melissa Lingo, is stunning in how it takes you through a portal of sorts back and to forever. I mean the song has the classic folk abstractions and skipping tones of a Joni Mitchell or Judee Sill or Linda Perhacs or an amalgam of all of them. The song goes down easy, is gorgeous but also textured and gritty with sonic splinters and beautiful in it's collision of classic folk and maybe busker folk, something that appeals to me so much. Lingo's vocal countenance might leave you breathless. That was my reaction and after repeated listens I absorbed the textures of her lilt, the vibrato that pulls you in close and her self harmonies that are simply golden. I also appreciate the tones, sonics of her wonderful piece of wood that she plays (whatever it is, it must be vintage). The subtle arrangements and orchestrations, gentle but transporting will stay with me, inspire me.
LINER NOTES share that is a "hauntingly poetic tribute to the archetype of the hag—an ode to forgotten power, feminine chaos, and the flickering persistence of hope" and it exists forever on meka's debut album THE RABBIT which dropped on May 21st, 2025 via Dumont Dumont.
ABOUT (from Liner Notes):
[meka has led an unconventional and somewhat nomadic life, raised in an isolated Californian mountain town dedicated entirely to astronomical research, she became fascinated with outer space and the archetypal nature of astrology. She comes from four generations of musicians and storytellers, including her mother who was a singer and guitar player for most of her life, and her grandmother who played what meka called “a mean double bass”. Following slivers of her life spent in Brazil and India, before settling for 8 years in Cambodia, she then found her way to Budapest and eventually Prague where she lives high in the mountains.]
Love this track so much.
"I'm a moon countin' mountain man
I am no stranger to fortune or dangerI've broken bread with frauds
Some lovers and some gods
But I always leave in tears
So I don't advise trusting in
Much but profound nothingness
How it looms
Branched and bloomed
Way up above us
The memory of what once was"
-Robb Donker Curtius
https://www.instagram.com/meka.laments/
https://idol-io.ffm.to/therabbit
meka is the guise of American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Melissa Lingo whose transcendent musicality and utterly exquisite vocal transports the listener back to the hazy sweet spot of 1960’s-70’s folk. File under the likes of Joan Baez, Vashti Bunyan and Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter, alongside more contemporary artists who embody that yesteryear classic sound such as Alela Diane.
meka, singer-songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Melissa Lingo, 60's / 70's folk, classic folk, folk indie, acoustic, debut album THE RABBIT, focal song "What Once Was", intimate vocals, textured guitar tones,
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/meka.laments/
https://idol-io.ffm.to/therabbit
meka is the guise of American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Melissa Lingo whose transcendent musicality and utterly exquisite vocal transports the listener back to the hazy sweet spot of 1960’s-70’s folk. File under the likes of Joan Baez, Vashti Bunyan and Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter, alongside more contemporary artists who embody that yesteryear classic sound such as Alela Diane.
meka, singer-songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Melissa Lingo, 60's / 70's folk, classic folk, folk indie, acoustic, debut album THE RABBIT, focal song "What Once Was", intimate vocals, textured guitar tones,
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