Willard Grant Conspiracy // The Ghost Of The Girl In The Well // Regard The End // 2003

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A Propos :

Despite its somber connotations, the meaning behind the disc’s title, Fisher says, has as much to do with life and the living of it as it does with death. "The subject matter of the album is mortality, and I guess for me that’s the big theme in all of art, anyway — how you come to terms with your mortality sort of defines how you live your life."

Carried by a quiver of violin cross-stitching across pensive electric guitar, "The Ghost of the Girl in the Well" seems to embrace both of those extremes. Fisher wrote the lyrics a dozen years ago with a close friend, Manny Verzosa, and it’s based on a true story about a 14-year-old girl who is sexually abused and terrorized by a man "who owned my family." She flees and attempts to hide, only to fall into a well, where she dies alone and undiscovered. Kristin Hersh’s spectral vocal floats above Fisher’s and then plunges like an arrow into a heavy heart. The moment feels like a solitary sob — from the girl and for her — at the bottom of a pitch-black darkness.

When they first attempted the tune, neither Verzosa nor Fisher was happy with the music, so the song was set aside. Several years later, Verzosa was killed in an automobile accident while touring with the Silos. But in a sense, his voice, much like the ghost of that girl, lives on inside this song. "It’s extra special that Kristin’s on it, because he was a huge fan of hers. It’s funny, because Manny was on the first record [3 A.M. Sunday @ Fortune Otto’s, Dahlia Records, 1996] too. There’s a sound vérité piece that’s Chinese New Year in New York, and he recorded that and gave me the tape. When we were making the record, he had recently passed on, so my way of putting him on the record was putting that sound piece on it. Maybe his spirit infuses both records in a unique way. It’s kinda cool." The Boston Phoenix

Bonus :

Willard Grant Conspiracy // Entire Concert @ Paradiso 14/10/2006