Kris Delmhorst : Since You Went Away

Kris Delmhorst’s album, ’Strange Conversation’, was something of a departure for her, since she has never been noted for co-writing songs. The music was her own, but each cut features the words of a collaborator - as written by that person, or adapted by Delmhorst. In fact if you were seeking a sub-title for this collection, one possibility could be “Kris & The Dead Poets Society.“ In terms of age, Delmhorst’s inspirations range from the oldest - Virgil (b. 70 BC, d. 19 BC), albeit by way of Hermann Broch’s “The Death Of Virgil,“ through to recent contemporaries - America’s E. E. Cummings (b. 1894, d. 1962), and England’s Poet Laureate John Masefield (b. 1878, d. 1967). This song, “Since You Went Away“, is adapted from the words of James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938), who in 1922 edited The Book of American Negro Poetry, which the Academy of American Poets calls “a major contribution to the history of African-American literature.“ Kris Delmhorst’s ’Strange Conversation’ is a brilliant achievement, a recording th