Estella Jane

by Steve Salett

Steve Salett’s last release, as The Poison Tree in 2011, introduced a new chapter in his wide-ranging career: a wise, playful, and newly gentle songwriting voice that felt both fully-formed and ready to deepen and evolve. That evolution, along with everything else in his life, was stopped in its tracks a few months later by the sudden and unexpected loss of his wife, Estella, to breast cancer.

In the immediate aftermath, Salett’s sole focus was on their two young children, and it wasn’t until years later that he felt drawn back to writing songs. He began searching out lyrical ideas wherever he could find them—dreams, a piece written for a grief support group he attended, an old photograph. “The cliche ‘picking up the pieces’ might be the easiest way to describe how I wrote,” he says.

For help gathering these songs—and in a sense himself—together, Salett turned to his friends Patrick Dillett (Sufjan Stevens, David Byrne, Paul Simon) and Thomas Bartlett (St. Vincent, Florence & the Machine, Yoko Ono), and together they obsessively whittled and sanded and burned until the songs were reduced to their essence: deeply, inescapably personal, but also deeply strange, grappling fiercely with grief, and always at an angle. Salett’s voice emerges here darker than before, dizzying in range from a deep, impossibly rich baritone to a feather-light falsetto.

After finishing these recordings, nearly 7 years ago, Salett found that he wasn’t yet ready to release them in any traditional sense. He says “I put the songs onto mini iPods, and into little linen bags I sewed, with a blank page from one of Estella’s diaries. I made 5 of them, and gave them away on the 5th anniversary of her death. I didn’t know how to share these songs, and I still don’t, but I hope they have something to offer. Grief is universal, and I know that more now. I hope the songs don’t just reflect sadness (they are sad, yes), but also connect to the joy and the love that surrounded me and surrounds me still.”

artwork by DM Stith

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Lyrics

No Light But You

I’m not bad 

I’m not good

I held my breath as long I could

But I’m not drowned 

Lost or found

What picked me up is beneath me now

And I know what I had

And I know what I had

But you’ll never know 

You’ll never know

I’ve grown up

I’ve grown up

Oh I don’t know what you’re waiting for

I close my eyes to see that I’m falling too

There’s no light 

There’s no light but you

Take my hand 

Its made of wood

We can watch it burn 

Like the rest of me should 

And I know what I had

And I know what I had

But you’ll never know 

You’ll never know

But you’ll never know 

You’ll never know

I’ve grown up

I’ve grown up

The Girl Who Lost Keys

What kind of man is he

What kind of man is he

Does he grab your arms 

Or pull your wrists

Does he tie a string 

Where the ends don’t fit

For the girl who lost her keys

What kind of mark he made

What kind of mark he made

Did he walk the halls with a mellow might

Or cut through walls with his razor knife

Or at the bar with a shameless heat

Should’ve known better 

But I can’t decide 

A hand on the door and one on the pane

He could’ve saved you but he had too much to hide 

So for tonight we should feel no shame

What finally set him free 

What finally set him free

Did he fall from a debt unpaid

Or spider veined from a rare disease

Or did he turn and walk away

From the girl who lost her keys

Someone I’m like 

Someone I’d like

Someone I like

Someone I like 

Feathers

Wrap your arms all around me babe

And under skin plant a seed 

That’ll tangle in my chest when I breath 

I can feel feathers where the strings’ been cut

I’m working 

I’m working everyday

I’m working everyday

I’m working everyday

With you by my 

With you by my side

Silhouettes oh they cry for you

Through the trees or the corner of my eye

I can feel feathers where the strings’ been cut

I’m working 

I’m working everyday

I’m working everyday

I’m working everyday

I’m working everyday

With you by my 

With you by my side

Sweet Mama

You were mine don’t forget me now

There’s such a long way to go

With a knee stuck in the ground

I’m sinking oh so slow

Sweet mama wake up

Sweet mama wake up

You’re gonna miss your bus 

Sweet mama wake up

Ah there’s a road for us

If you lean lean against me now

I digging through the undergrowth

I’m kicking til my hands grow cold 

I’m sinking oh so slow

Sweet mama wake up

Sweet mama wake up

You’re gonna miss your bus 

Sweet mama wake up

Ah there’s a road for us

Love’s Not For Kicks

I want you to find your way

And I know you can’t stay 

And there’s nothing to say 

That’ll change a thing 

Oh I’m waking up 

I can’t sleep anymore

Breaking up 

Love’s not for keeps anymore

And you can only wait 

You can only wait so long 

And I can only take

I can only take me on

I forgot how it stings 

On the edge of the blame

And I don’t owe a thing 

Except how I’m made

Shut it up 

There’s a stick in the door

The joke is us

Love’s not for kicks anymore

And I can only take

I could only take me on

And you could only wait 

You can only wait so long 

Lonely Child

Let me go back to you babe 

Our reflection off the Great Lakes

Yeah I’m a lonely child 

Yeah I’m a lonely child

All the shadows thread the daybreak 

And arcing through my headaches

Too much sugar for a dime

Yeah I’m a lonely child

See you standing beside me yeah

Our fingers through the tall waves

You looked at me and smiled

Yeah I’m a lonely child

About Steve Salett

Steve Salett is a song-writer, producer, and musical advisor whose work has been praised as “Picturesque songs about the broken-hearted” (BrooklynVegan). From early work in The Kelley Deal 6000 and Deformo to the pop stylings of The King of France and heartbreak of The Poison Tree, Salett has honed a songwriting craft steeped in authenticity. A believer in musical community building, Salett runs Reservoir Studios in Manhattan and the Saltmines studio complex in DUMBO, Brooklyn. With the founding of Historical Fiction Records Salett hopes to continue to support exciting and creative musicians by constantly striving to answer the question “What if?”.