Friendship Immortalized in Song: An Interview with Mary Lattimore

Image via Rachel Pony Cassells

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About 48 hours after the 2024 election, Los Angeles-based harpist Mary Lattimore took the stage at Largo with her mother, harpist Leila Lattimore. As the country processed the ramifications of the election, an unnerved and solace-seeking audience gathered to watch the mother-daughter duo conjure tender sounds from their mythologically sanctified instruments.

“It seems like people need a balm right now,” Lattimore says. “A few people said that they cried.”

In Ireland, the harp is a political symbol, an instrument used to compose eulogies for clan leaders in traditional Gaelic society. But in this converted experimental theater that used to screen films from Kenneth Anger and Man Ray, Lattimore and her mother offered a mystical comfort to the numb crowd.

Even on Zoom, Lattimore’s calming aura shines through. She recalls a standout moment: her mother’s reimagined version of “The Swan,” or “Le cygne,” a 19th century, classical piece written by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. Accompanied by the synthesizer of Chrome Sparks, the piece imagines a swan’s final lament before death. Balancing the fleeting and the eternal, “The Swan” reminds me of walking around a cemetery, the paths decorated by beautiful trees and gravestones.

As a child, Lattimore watched her mother play the harp in various orchestras before picking up the instrument at age 11. She received classical training at the Eastman School of Music and in the past dozen years, she has released 16 albums, including collaborations with Slowdive’s Neil Halstead. During this span, she’s opened for everyone from Mdou Moctar to Mitski.

Lattimore’s most recent release, Rain on the road, is a collaboration with her good friend, accordionist Walt McClements. Born from moments spent on the road together when Lattimore was opening for Beach House, the pair “immortalized” their friendship over the course of a rainy LA winter.

“We holed up, hung out and drank wine and played our instruments. This is what came from it,” Lattimore said. “It was just hitting record, seeing what happened.”

The five tracks total over 40 minutes, beginning with “Stolen Bells,” a call to the church of harp and accordion; it’s a song full of deep notes and ambient comfort. In sync, Lattimore and McClements welcome listeners through an imaginary candle-lit hallway. Together, they concoct a holy soundscape that penetrates every corner of the brain.

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Rain falls on “The Poppies, the Wild Mustard, the Blue-Eyed Grass.” McClements takes his time with the accordion, letting the instrument lead him through imagined fields of wildflowers. “We Waited for the Bears to Leave,” opens with McClements and Lattimore encountering a family of bears on her family’s property in Asheville. Unbeknownst to Lattimore, McClements was recording their whispered anxieties about getting to their van safely in time for a sound check on the Asheville tour stop.

“You can hear us whispering, ‘They’re so cute. We shouldn’t go yet,’” Lattimore said. “He captured these little moments of us on tour together, and we incorporated that into the record. It is really a beautiful symbol of our friendship.”

In September, Lattimore’s hometown of Asheville, North Carolina was devastated by Hurricane Helene. Touring in Italy at the time, Lattimore watched the destruction of her city and her favorite places on the news from almost 5,000 miles away. Fortunately, Lattimore’s family was safe, but in Europe, Lattimore felt far from being able to help her community.

Soon after, music writer Grayson Haver Currin approached Lattimore about providing a song for a benefit album, Cardinals at the Window, healing her hometown in a different way. Still in Italy, Lattimore borrowed a friend’s tiny organ and worked with North Carolina-born engineer Clay Blair to create the album’s 47th track, “I’ll See You Tomorrow.” The project, featuring the likes of Angel Olsen, R.E.M., and Fleet Foxes, has raised over $300,000 those impacted by the hurricane.

“I’m very happy I was a part of it,” Lattimore said. “It was weird to be so far away geographically, but the album helped me feel closer to the situation.”

Three days after the election and twelve days before her California tour, I caught up with Lattimore, discussing Philadelphia versus Los Angeles, a run-in with a family of bears that made it to Rain on the Road, and how she turned her front porch into a stage during the pandemic.