Into The Wild

The Fable True
David Mallett
(North Road Records)

Maine’s Dave Mallett is a respected singer-songwriter whose work over the past 30 or so years has been covered by John Denver, Pete Seeger and Emmylou Harris, among many others. On his latest project, “The Fable True,” Mallett has become a cover artist of sorts, turning to a book by another notable writer and New Englander – Henry David Thoreau – for inspiration.

Specifically, Mallett has set to music narration of favorite selections from Thoreau’s “The Maine Woods.” As a native of Sebec, a town not far from where Thoreau’s travels took him, Mallett is right at home with the material. He clearly holds a special affection for his home state and Thoreau’s vivid descriptions of it.

“The Maine Woods,” which was published posthumously in 1864, is not a modern tale of Maine. Thoreau made excursions north from Massachusetts in 1846, 1853 and 1857, to climb Mt. Katahdin, which few at that time had done, and to explore a largely untamed wilderness. Nor is it necessarily a travelogue. It is a treasure, especially in our times, a guided tour of a wilderness that is no longer as wild. Thoreau already was lamenting the sedentary (for the times) lifestyle of the populace in the 19th century. “Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine lives and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light,” he wrote. Imagine Thoreau’s reaction today, knowing that Mallett’s musical tribute can be digitally downloaded and carried into the woods in one’s shirt pocket.

Mallett takes the listener on an enchanted journey from the iPod Age back in time. His Yankee accent is naturally appropriate, and his conviction in the narration is palpable. “The Fable True” would make excellent teaching material or serve as an introduction to those unfamiliar with Thoreau’s book. For the uninitiated or those only familiar with Thoreau’s more famous “Walden,” it is perhaps best to let Thoreau set the scene, as Mallett does on the opening track, “The 31st of August”:

On the 31st of August, 1846, I left Concord in Massachusetts for Bangor and the backwoods of Maine, by way of railroad and steamboat, intending to accompany a relative of mine, engaged in the lumber trade in Bangor, as far as a dam on the west branch of the Penobscot, in which property he was interested. From this place, which is about one hundred miles by the river above Bangor, thirty miles from the Houlton military road, and five miles beyond the last log-hut, I proposed to make excursions to Mount Ktaadn, the second highest mountain in New England, about thirty miles distant, and to some of the lakes of the Penobscot, either alone or with such company as I might pick up there.

Thoreau did climb Ktaadn, an Indian word signifying “highest land.” He wrote of bateaux (“the white man’s canoe”) and birch bark; of portages and planting potatoes; of loons and lumberjacks; of fishing, shooting downriver through whitewater, sleeping under the stars and finding phosphorescent wood.

Mallett (acoustic guitar, mandolin, harmonica, banjo), Susan Ramsey (violin, viola) and Michael Burd (bass), play sympathetic backing music thematically matched to the readings. Fingerpicked guitar and resonant, ringing chords color the arrangements. The pace slows and picks up as necessary, notably on “Rapids.” The closing track, “Well Watered Country,” swells slightly for effect, then leaves the listener with a sense of resolution as the strings sing sweetly and softly before fading. That he composed music that offers such loving treatment to the words is little surprise; some of Mallett’s best work shares common ground with Thoreau’s. Being at peace with oneself and with nature are recurring themes in Mallett’s catalog, and his often-covered “Garden Song” extols the virtues of a healthy relationship with the earth. Nature is explored and exalted in “The Maine Woods,” and it is lovingly celebrated on “The Fable True.”

Thoreau’s complete stories cannot be told in 22 tracks covering 70 minutes. But Mallett edits responsibly, choosing anecdotes that give a complete picture of Thoreau’s travels into the Maine woods. He also is careful to preserve Thoreau’s narrative voice.

A highlight, in a disc full of them, is “Fishing,” Thoreau’s account of his party catching a flurry of trout that “glistened like the fairest flowers.” Thoreau was fascinated with the wonders of the natural world, and Mallett portrays an equal sense of awe in his narration. Thinking the bountiful fishing must have been dreamed, Thoreau rises to test the veracity of the experience. Mallett, in a voice that could as well have been Thoreau’s, and with a conviction that would suggest he wrote the words, reports Thoreau’s findings and reveals his title.

“There stood Ktaadn with distinct and cloudless outline in the moonlight; and the rippling of the rapids was the only sound to break the stillness. Standing on the shore, I once more cast my line into the stream, and found the dream to be real and the fable true.”

One-hundred and fifty years after Thoreau’s last trip to Maine, David Mallet casts a line again into “The Maine Woods.” “The Fable True,” like those wild trout, is a keeper.