For someone who’s not a medium (that we’re aware of), Gish possesses an incredible knack for communing with the deceased.
The specters of New England are still whispering to local artist Jacalynn Manning, whose musical solo project Gish weaves tapestries of ethereal folk music to dispel whatever’s haunting her — or in this case, what she thinks is haunting a particular local spirit. The songstress’ new EP Lidian (out today, September 29) excavates a centuries-long yearning laying dormant within the earth at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
Specifically, the feelings mouldering inside the grave of Lidian Emerson, the second wife of famed transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“I was so moved by her headstone I went home and researched her life,” Manning tells Vanyaland, recalling a visit to the Emerson family plot in Concord. A boulder of rose quartz with a bronze plaque marks Ralph’s final resting place; to the left, a lowly nearby headstone adorned with metal tulips is dedicated to Lidian.
“A thing that stuck out to me was how Mr. Emerson had a previous wife who had died young, and when he married Lidian he told her that he would never love her because his heart belonged to his first wife,” Manning explains. “Lidian loved him desperately, had his children, and never stopped trying to ‘earn’ his affection. I think that stuck with me a lot. The idea of pining forever, having this love that you need so badly just out of reach. The willingness to do anything to receive it. The character obviously morphed a lot when I started writing.”
Once her pen was in motion, it was Gish’s creative spirit that shaped the rest of Lidian’s tale, equipping a foundation of factual heartbreak to construct a fictional epilogue. In true Gish fashion, it’s not exactly the happiest ending for Lidian — but it is Manning’s most developed ghost story to date.
“In the song ‘House Fire,’ Lidian learns of a girl who dies tragically young, and invites the girl’s spirit to cohabitate with her in her body,” she notes. “What started as a charitable sacrifice turns into a much too heavy burden, and Lidian spends the remainder of her life looking out of eyes that no longer belong to her. The title track acts as a bookend to this story, where Lidian finds peace with her decisions in life. The other stories that make up this EP expand on the same themes of loss and sacrifice that define Lidian.”
Crack open Lidian’s story (and Gish’s addendum) below.