When I originally planned the following interview, it was to support Ethan Stokes Tischler’s album release concert at the Mayo Street Arts center in Portland on the 25th of this month. I had a bit of a problem connecting with him and he ended up calling me from a coffee shop in Camden on the 7th of last month. As I was transcribing our 24-minute chat, he messaged me and told me about a concert he and Elsie Gawler had just booked at Slates in Hallowell on the 14th of May. When asked if this was to be an album release show, he explained that it wasn’t but that the folk duo would be playing selections from “Across the Waking Skies” as part of their performance that evening. Now, on to that aforementioned conversation, which began with me asking him about the response he’s been getting since the CD came out in February.

Tischler: So far, so good. It’s been wonderful to just have something to share with folks in the absence of, the loss of, live shows. I think that’s sort of what the album was born out of in 2020, early on in the pandemic. It was like, “wow, I don’t think we’re going to be playing music very much in the near future, but I want to find a way to keep all this moving.”

Q: Well, obviously, you found a way.
Tischler: I started experimenting more with recording at home and eventually put together the whole project. It was exciting.

Q: Usually a new release leads to the obligatory live support concerts.
Tischler: We’ve got the first round of album-release shows in, gosh, two or three weeks; here in Belfast and then over in Vermont, which I think is going to be one of the first chances to really, actually share the music in a live way, outside of the album.

Q: Is this your first album?
Tischler: This is, depending on how you count it, sort of album number three, but it’s my first as me, like under my own name. There were a couple of projects that preceded this one in Vermont that were a little bit more experiments that came out of a coming together of folks in a little chunk of time. They all sort of felt like they were building towards this one, the first proper album.

Q: Now this show coming up in Portland, will it be a solo performance or will you have support musicians with you?
Tischler: Yeah, I’m feeling very fortunate that is will not be a solo show (laughter)! I’ve played some songs out solo before and I think one of the most delightful parts of the album was pulling in people to all the different places to really fill out the songs, and that’s true for the live shows, too.

Q: Who will you have with you, then?
Tischler: I’m going to have Elsie and Willy Clemetson on fiddle and Noah Fishman on bass, and the mandolinist on the album, Greg {Pauza}, is actually going to be flying up from North Carolina to play the Portland show, which is going to be great because he’s been one of the longest collaborators with me.

Q: One thing I wanted to tell you about “Across the Waking Skies” is that every song on it, in my opinion, is strong, there is not one throw-away track.
Tischler: Thanks very much. That’s really good to hear because when we were making it, it was like we were making it in a vacuum.

Q: How so?
Tischler: Well, everybody on the album was recording themselves from their various quarantine spaces in 2020 (chuckle) and everybody figured out how to send in their parts. I would get them into a rough mix in Lincolnville and then send all the audio to a really lovely engineer (Lane Gibson who also played piano) in Charlotte (Vermont) who put all the polish on it and really put it together.

Q: Now that’s wild because it sounds like you were all in a studio together, not in different locations all over the place. Technology is amazing, no doubt about it.
Tischler: That was what we were hoping for but with everybody having different equipment, I wasn’t sure we could pull it off. I mean, Elsie and I were able to be in the same space, but Tyler (Bolles), Caleb (Bronz) and Greg really listened to what we had done and blended in beautifully. it’s such a testament to the musicality of all involved.

Q: And vocally, Elsie and you harmonize so wonderfully, it was a pleasure to experience that.
Tischler: (Chuckle) Well, we’ve been singing together for a long time now, so that helps. Elsie’s been a total champion of all of these songs, they started out a voice-memos that we sent to each other in 2016 and 2017.

Q: Is there anything else in the works that you’d like to talk about?
Tischler: Yeah, in the last couple of years, as we’ve been working up this album, we’ve also been writing new songs, as well, and are getting really psyched about the first Elsie & Ethan album.

Q: Oh, nice!!
Tischler: Yeah, so we’re going to be jumping in, either in the spring or summer, but knowing how busy the summer is, it’ll probably be the fall (chuckle), on a duo album. And ‘duo’ in the sense of also another great opportunity to pull in all these wonderful musicians that are in the area.

Q: Now, as far as the Mayo Street Arts show in Portland goes, have you played there before?
Tischler: Yeah, we just had three nights in a row there with The Gawler Family just two weekends back. It’s a really, really sweet spot with beautiful sound.

Q: Is there anything, Ethan, that you’d like me to pass on to the folks reading this article?
Tischler: Not really, maybe just that as the year goes on, we’re hopeful that there will be more and more chances to get out and about and connect, and actually share in person.

Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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