David Mallett

While tending the family garden on a rural Maine farm, David Mallett suddenly felt compelled to hurry inside, grab a pencil and pad, and compose a fresh song. In the years that followed, "The Garden Song" received interpretations from performers including Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, John Denver, and the Muppets. The piece also appeared in numerous translations and led Harper Collins to publish the book Inch by Inch. Mallett's work, however, reached well beyond that composition. A gifted songwriter, he regularly evoked the brisk winds and generous spirits of northern New England together with the unadorned existence of rural America. Emmylou Harris recorded his "Red Red Rose," and Kathy Mattea recorded "Summer of My Dreams."

Mallett showed early musical promise. By age ten he performed across northern New England alongside his brother in a country-folk group. Although the ensemble drew primary notice for youthful versions of songs by Buck Owens and Johnny Cash, its sets also contained many folk numbers from Peter, Paul and Mary and the Kingston Trio. While studying at the University of Maine, he grew immersed in the music of Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Dylan, and other contemporary singer-songwriters. After leaving the university he launched a solo career. His first significant opportunity arose in the mid-1970s when he met Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary. Stookey, who ran a recording studio in South Blue Hills, Maine, served as Mallett's mentor and produced his first three albums. Stookey also helped bring "The Garden Song" to Pete Seeger, who placed it on the 1979 album Circles and Seasons.

In the early 1990s Mallett left Maine for a temporary stay in Nashville, aiming to establish himself as a songwriter. During six years in Tennessee's Music City he co-wrote numerous songs with Hal Ketchum and released the country-folk album This Town, produced by Jim Rooney in 1993. He returned to northern Maine in 1997, the same year Flying Fish issued the live album Parallel Lives, which revisited material from across his career. Cherry Lane published the songbook The Songs of David Mallett that year. Flying Fish followed with Ambition in 1999. Mallett's recordings continued into the twenty-first century with Artist in Me in 2003, Midnight on the Water in 2006, The Fable True in 2007, and Alright Now in 2009. Three further albums appeared during the 2010s before David Mallett died on December 17, 2024, at the age of 73.