Sign up for our mailing list Real artists creating records on their own terms
Close

Sign up for our mailing list

News

Half Waif Shares “The Museum”, A Heartwrenching Reflection On Climate Change
Monday, September 9th, 2024

Half Waif Shares “The Museum”, A Heartwrenching Reflection On Climate Change

Last month Half Waif aka Nandi Rose announced her new studio album, ‘See You At The Maypole’. Coming out in less than a month on October 4, this collection of music came to fruition after a newly pregnant Rose experienced a heartbreaking miscarriage in December of 2021, followed by months of medical complications. “I was literally carrying death inside me,” she explains, “and then my body was frozen.” In that same time, Rose’s beloved mother-in-law was diagnosed with aggressive pancreatic cancer; it felt like the universe was playing an endless, cruel joke. And so, Rose wrote to save herself. Before the sunrise, she wrote in the quiet corner of the would-be nursery while her husband slept across the hall. These were lullabies for no one, whispers dissipating into the fog. 
 
In The Wild Edge of Sorrow: The Sacred Work of Grief by Francis Weller, the author highlights the importance of ritual spaces, and how many communities tend to gather in these spaces when someone has lost a loved one. Though the stem of many of these songs were written in isolation, Rose’s lullabies would soon bloom into a collective calling for anyone experiencing their own personal winter. ‘See You At The Maypole’ is a room for wailing, not just for catharsis but for connection. Like lung-bursting sing-a-longs alone in the car, notes leaving the open window to be caught by another. 
 
Today she is sharing a new excerpt from that journey, the album track “The Museum”. Listen to it below.  
Listen to “The Museum”: https://youtu.be/0sXlCmsG43M 
 
“There’s a warehouse at the top of Main Street in my tiny town that’s being turned into a museum for Shaker art,” Rose described when discussing the song’s meaning. “It’s just down the road from my house, so I pass by it all the time. When I wrote ‘The Museum,’ I was thinking about how sort of beautifully delusional it is to create a museum at a time when the world is reaching the apex of climate crisis. This idea of preserving pieces of furniture in a pristine, white-walled space when outside, everything is collapsing.” 
 
She then continued, adding: “I’d also read a headline about how people were vacationing in Iceland at an active volcano, and that seemed to hold the same feeling for me as the museum-under-construction. Tourism at the brink of apocalypse. Meanwhile, my husband and I were talking about building a family, building a future, and I was grappling with the responsibility of what it means to bring a child into this kind of world—where people pose for selfies while the earth explodes.” 
 
Just after the album’s release, Half Waif will perform two album release shows – one in upstate New York and one in Brooklyn – and will then tour the country in support of ‘See You At The Maypole’ beginning at the top of 2025, in addition to a brief EU run in mid-February. All upcoming dates are listed below. 

US 2024 / 2025 TOUR DATES 
10/5 - Chatham, NY @ PS21 
10/9 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Made 
1/10 - Philadelphia, PA @ Milkboy 
1/11 - Washington DC @ Songbyrd 
1/13 - Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle 
1/14 - Nashville, TN @ Soft Junk 
1/15 - Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar 
1/16 - Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village 
1/17 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Calvin University 
1/29 - Brattleboro, VT @ Stone Church 
1/30 - Portland, ME @ One Longfellow Square 
1/31 - Boston, MA @ Arts at the Armory 
3/1 - Los Angeles, CA @ Pico Union Project 
3/2 - San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord 
3/4 - Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall 
3/5 - Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou’s 
 
EU & UK 2025 TOUR DATES 
2/10 - Berlin, Germany @ Privatclub 
2/11 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso 
2/12 - Antwerp, Belgium @ Trix 
2/13 - Paris, France @ Le Hasard Ludique 
2/14 - London, UK @ King’s Place 
 

Browse by Artist

2101All Artists 100Tom Waits 74Mavis Staples 59Neko Case 51Lost In The Trees 50Sean Rowe 48Dr. Dog 45The Milk Carton Kids
41Jolie Holland 40Bettye LaVette 37Man Man 36Son Little 35Tinariwen 33DeVotchKa 33Tim Fite 31Islands 31Grinderman 29Glen Hansard 28Saintseneca 27Galactic 27Wilco 27Delicate Steve 26Andy Shauf 25The Drums 24Michael Franti and Spe... 24Xenia Rubinos 22William Elliott Whitmo... 22Doe Paoro 22Bob Mould 21The Frames 21Nick Cave & The Bad Se... 20Joe Henry 20Christopher Paul Stell... 19Yves Jarvis 19Cass McCombs 19Booker T. Jones 19Sage Francis 18Gary V 18Deafheaven 18Calexico 17Yann Tiersen 17John K. Samson 16Jason Lytle 16The Antlers 16Danny Elfman 16Ramblin Jack Elliott 14Daniel Lanois 14Jeremy Ivey 14Madi Diaz 13The Dream Syndicate 13Half Waif 13Billy Bragg 12Leyla McCalla 12Combo Chimbita 12Girlpool 12Xavier Rudd 12Peter Silberman 11Mose Allison 11Lyrics Born 11Rain Machine 11Ryan Pollie 11Roky Erickson 11Purr 11The Weakerthans 11Glitterer 11Jade Jackson 10Alfa Mist 10Japandroids 10The Swell Season 10Darrin Bradbury 10Moor Mother 10High Pulp 10Christian Lee Hutson 10So Much Light 10The Melodic 9Hey, King! 9Curtis Harding 9Marianne Faithfull 9Wynonna 9Josiah Johnson 9M. Ward 9Cameron Avery 9N.A.S.A. 9Lido Pimienta 8Katy Kirby 8Greg Graffin 8Kate Davis 8Slow Pulp 8The Coup 8Solillaquists of Sound 8Cadence Weapon 7Kelly Hogan 7Ben Harper 7Title Fight 7Dead Man's Bones 7Ben Harper and Charlie... 7Alec Ounsworth 7Richard Reed Parry 7Beth Orton 7Eddie Izzard 7Elliott Smith 6Broken Twin 6Rafiq Bhatia 6Busdriver 6Deradoorian 6A Girl Called Eddy 6MJ Lenderman 6Kate Bush 6Bonny Doon 6Os Mutantes 5Foxwarren 5Kristine Leschper 5One Day As A Lion 5Ezra Furman 5The Tallest Man On Ear... 5Scott McMicken and THE... 5Beat Connection 5James Brandon Lewis 5Jasmyn 5Keaton Henson 5Art Moore 5The Field 4Ersi Arvizu 4The Good Ones 4Sparklehorse 4Pops Staples 4Waxahatchee 4Marketa Irglova 4sunking 4Jackson+Sellers 3Walter Wolfman Washing... 3Plains 3Marc Ribot 3Mothers 3Danny Cohen 3Sam Akpro 3Petra Haden 3Sierra Leones Refugee... 3Mavis Staples & Levon... 2Fleet Foxes 2Various Artists: RANGO 2ANTI- Records 2Jeff Tweedy 1Various Artists: ROGUE... 1Rogue's Gallery 1Antibalas 1Simian Mobile Disco 1Porter Wagoner 1Blackalicious 1Lightman Jarvis Ecstat... 1Joe Strummer And The M... 1Solomon Burke 1Youth Group 1Merle Haggard 1case/lang/veirs 1The Locust 1Taylor Vick 1Tricky 1Kronos Quartet with Br...
See Full List+