Emily O’Halloran was instilled with a sense of wanderlust early on. Born in Australia, she eventually made her way to Los Angeles. It was her initial enchantment with that city and eventual disappointment that morphed into her muse, one that inspired her soon-to-be-released sophomore album, Forsaken, a series of songs that probe what happens when disappointment intrudes on desire and new realities emerge front and center.
Produced by Grammy Award-nominated producer Mark Howard (Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Marianne Faithful, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris and Neil Young), Forsaken was recorded during four days and features the cream of the L.A.‘s elite session musicians, including Michael Chaves (Leonard Cohen, Sia, John Mayer), Hal Cragin (Iggy Pop, Joni Mitchell, Sarah Maclachlan), Don Heffington (Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris), and Doug Pettibone (Lucinda Williams, Mark Knopfler, Marianna Faithful).
Howard initially became acquainted with O’Halloran after receiving a demo of some of her songs. He was immediately impressed by sultry, seductive vocals and a knack for writing songs that resonated with deep-felt credence and conviction even on first encounter. He contacted her and suggested that if she was ever passing through L.A., he would welcome a chance to record with her. She took him up on his offer, and he assembled an outstanding cast of musicians, many of whom would return to play on Forsaken. Her debut album, Morphine and Cupcakes, marked O’Halloran as one worthy of watching.
No Depression said of her first album, “O’Halloran proves she’s a master of the form. Morphine and Cupcakes makes for a most auspicious debut.”
L.A. Weekly noted that she “persuasively evokes Cat Power’s lazy, hazy soul,” while Innocent Words compared her “with the tender side of Lucinda Williams, the breeziness of Cowboy Junkies, and the atmospheric wonderment of Tom Waits.”
“I put her on the same pedestal as Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, and Tom Waits,” Howard would say later, an impressive compliment coming from a man who knows a thing or two about a great talent when he comes across it.
“I wrote the material in the aftermath of a severed relationship,” O’Halloran says of her sophomore set. “It was obviously a very traumatic time. But as I reflected on the situation, my thoughts began to shift towards my relationship with Los Angeles, the city where I had made my home for the better part of the past decade. I realized there were so many parallels. It was almost like a love affair that starts out sounding so amazing and wonderful and so full of possibilities. However, after a while, you begin to see the underbelly of the situation and eventually those darker elements begin to intrude on your reality, leaving you feeling abandoned and forsaken and unsure of your circumstance overall.”
In keeping with those deeper desires, the new album unfolds as a series of sumptuous, sprawling laments, each given added emphasis by O’Halloran’s rich, resonant vocals, underscored by the shimmer and sway of Don Heffington’s trademark pedal steel. From the assertive stance of opening track “Welfare Line,” the alluring appeal of “Come to California” and the title track to the accentuated uptick of “Prison Greens,” the wistful “Red Dirt Roads” and the slow spiral of “L.A. Will Always Be Ours,” the song set documents the singer’s early enticement with the city she had come to call home. It eventually led to disillusionment and the realization that the possibilities she had first envisioned were now dispelled by the challenges and demands of survival and salvation.
Together, these songs weave a remarkable journey, one filled with hope, happenstance and ultimately redemption.
In a very real way, the songs parallel O’Halloran’s own journey. Raised in a hippie commune, she was instilled with a sense of wanderlust and wide-eyed wonder early on. Leaving home at age 14, she hitchhiked across the country before eventually making it to New York City. There she spent 2 1/2 years reciting her poetry in Greenwich Village coffee houses, busking in subway stations and on the street outside the infamous Chelsea Hotel, and living a bohemian lifestyle.
Once resettled in L.A., O’Halloran was immediately smitten. But in the aftermath of a severed relationship, she began to see parallels that connect the loss of a partner to the unseemly sides of urban existence that eventually intrude on the awe and wonder that accompany any new encounter.
Nevertheless, O’Halloran has shown her determination to persevere. She has a gift for conveying deeply held sentiments and sharing them in a way that’s sensual, seductive, and coolly compelling. In many ways, her story is everyone’s story — that is, a journey of discovery where even setbacks and pitfalls can create a new sense of passion and purpose.
And with those qualities found on distant horizons, it’s certainly worth following along as she plots her path to discovery.
Lee Zimmerman