Eliza Edens - "Westlawn Cemetery"

Photo via Juliet Farmer

Eliza Edens' latest song is quite clearly about mortality, but it's not a total bummer of a song. "Westlawn Cemetery" is definitely melancholy, but in a way that's just accepting. Edens has created the kind of song that may include electric instrumentation while still being purely folk. Sure, it's not a traditional version of the genre, but everything about "Westlawn Cemetery" is pure folk. It's a gorgeous, heartfelt song that will be impossible not to be affected by emotionally.

Eliza Edens says of her new song:

"During the depths of the pandemic, I was hunkering down at my childhood home with my parents in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. I went for walks every day, usually just up the street to a small, bucolic cemetery where I formed many early memories – sledding, walking the dog, learning to drive. During this time while I was home, it started to become clear that my mother needed extra care due to her illness. One afternoon on one of my walks, I started thinking a lot about mortality, the irony of gravestones, and how much time she spent as a professional gardener – tending to the earth and making the world a more beautiful place in the most literal way. Those thoughts swirled together, and this song manifested after fussing around in a tuning I learned from a Nick Drake song. My collaborator Pat had the idea of putting very thick, low-end electronic drums on the song which adds a felt heartbeat and weight to the song. It's all about the difficulty of accepting change and death."

You can listen to "Westlawn Cemetery" below. We'll Become the Flowers is due out October 14 and can be pre-ordered through Bandcamp. For more on Eliza Edens, check out the artist's website.