David Mallett’s children remember their late Maine songwriter father as ‘fierce’

By Emily Burnham, Bangor Daily News Staff

The children of the legendary Maine singer-songwriter David Mallett recalled their father as a man fiercely devoted to the things he loved: his music, his family, and his home state of Maine.

David Mallett died on Dec. 17 at the age of 73. Stories, memories and condolences have poured in from friends, family and from fans of his music from all over the world — though as Gov. Janet Mills said in a statement on Dec. 18, he was often called the “living embodiment of Maine.”

Mallett grew up in the Piscataquis County town of Sebec, with family roots that go back generations. As a young man, he was always musical, learning the guitar and starting a country music duo with his brother, Neil. The brothers — the original Mallett Brothers Band — also hosted a public access TV show on a local Bangor station, and had an early brush with fame when they opened for Johnny Cash at a Bangor concert in the 1960s. 

“He was always a huge fan of old country and western music,” said his son, Luke Mallett, who with his brother Will founded their own band, also the Mallett Brothers Band, in 2009. “That’s where it all started for him. And then, later on, hearing Gordon Lightfoot in college for the first time, that also opened up a whole world for him. He wrote so much of that first album in the basement at Pat’s Pizza in Orono.”

Mallett graduated from Foxcroft Academy in 1969 and attended the University of Maine for one year before dropping out. By then, however, he’d already begun writing songs, and for the next few years worked his way around the bar and cafe circuit in Maine before being discovered in 1975 by recent Maine transport Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary. 

Stookey introduced the earliest version of what would become Mallett’s signature song, “The Garden Song,” to folk icon Pete Seeger, who recorded his own version — as ringing a folk music blessing as there could be. In 1978, Stookey produced Mallett’s self-titled debut album at his Hen House recording studio in Blue Hill. In total, Mallett recorded 17 albums.

Suddenly, a musical kid from a tiny town in Maine was one of the most acclaimed new voices in folk music. In addition to Seeger and Peter, Paul and Mary, his songs have been recorded by the likes of Arlo Guthrie, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, fellow Mainer Gordon Bok and, famously, by John Denver, in a version of “The Garden Song” accompanied by a chorus of singing flowers on “The Muppet Show.”

Mallett moved to Nashville with his family in the early 1980s. One of the first people to welcome him to town was another Maine musical legend: Dick Curless, the country star best known for his hit “A Tombstone Every Mile.” Eventually, Mallett fell in with the singer-songwriter crowd in the city, coalescing around iconic venues like the Bluebird Cafe.

“Even though we haven’t seen so many of them and don’t even know a lot of them, so many Nashville people have come out of the woodwork to say how much his music meant to them,” Luke Mallett said. “But Nashville was never really the right fit for him. He was just looking for the right time to come back home.”

Unhappy with the country music machine in Nashville — Luke Mallett said his father always loved the art but hated the business — when David Mallett’s father Aubrey passed away in 1995 and he inherited the family farm, he and the family soon returned back home to Maine. He never left, and lived in the house he grew up in for the rest of his life.

Though he continued to tour all around the country and a few times internationally, his daughter Molly Mallett said he often felt most at home playing small venues in his home state.

“The smell of coffee and baked goods in a church or town hall is always going to immediately make me feel my dad’s presence,” she said. “People all over the world knew his songs, but when it was here in Maine, it was really special.”

Maine was a crucial part of Mallett’s identity, she said, and its woods, back roads and untouched wilderness brought endless inspiration to his songwriting. 

“He just belonged here. He was so deeply connected to this place. I’ve heard so many people refer to him as a ‘son of Maine’ or a ‘brother of Maine,’ and I think that’s because people really felt like he was family,” Molly Mallett said.

Though his touring schedule slowed down in more recent years, Mallett stayed busy on the farm taking care of gardens, horses and dogs. He enjoyed staying in touch with his childhood friends from the Sebec area, who still called him “Red,” the nickname he’d had since he was a boy. He was a passionate supporter of progressive political causes and a sometimes outspoken presence both in person and on social media. 

“We keep using the word ‘fierce’ so much when we’re describing him that we had to look up synonyms for it,” Molly Mallett said. “He was a fierce man. He was determined. And I had no bigger fan than my father. His love for us was palpable.”