Sneak of the Week: Elyse Weinberg, “Houses”

Editor’s Note: We’re excited about this new feature, “Sneak of the Week.” Here’s where we dig up a song from the past you’ve never heard or maybe heard, but nearly forgotten.  Check this one out!

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An almost-lost Laurel Canyon classic with an extra jolt from Neil Young.

Imagine the opening credits of a movie where a vintage convertible drives down the Pacific Coast Highway. We see the POV of the driver as the setting sun sparkles off the ocean, creating countless glistening diamonds in the water. All the while, we hear a tune that’s the ideal soundtrack for our imaginary tableaux. It’s Elyse Weinberg’s 1969 song “Houses.”

The car could have been the Pontiac LeMans that Weinberg started driving when she was living in Laurel Canyon. Along with the likes of Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, and Weinberg’s buddy Neil Young, she was one of the Canadian songpoets who emigrated to L.A. during the late ‘60s singer/songwriter boom.

She was right smack in the center of the scene. Mama Cass Elliott dug her enough to hook her up with Elliott’s old manager, who quickly scored Weinberg a record deal. In 1969, Tetragrammaton Records released her debut LP. It did fairly well, and she popped up in high-profile environs like The Tonight Show and Newsweek. Her backing band included J.D. Souther and a pre-Eagles Glenn Frey. Later the same year, she cut her second album, Greasepaint Smile, but the label went belly up, and the record remained unreleased for decades.

On an album loaded with emotional gut punches, “Houses” is among the most affecting. Weinberg’s throaty vocals bear a touch of Melanie/Richie Havens sandpaper that lends urgency, but there’s a rawness and immediacy that extends beyond mere physicality. It’s like she’s plugged into something deep and eternal, and you can’t help but be completely riveted to what she’s unleashing.

The lyrics incorporate some traditional folk/blues lines, like “bound for the promised land” and “like a circle ‘round the sun,” but they’re placed into a fresh context. Weinberg mixes earthbound imagery about people who can’t connect with each other’s worlds with more ethereal ideas. When the harmony vocals kick in on the song’s courtly chorus, it evokes classic Fairport Convention, who were peaking right around that same time.

But in a way, it almost doesn’t matter what the words are. Weinberg’s singing communicates in a way that can pretty much preclude language and conscious thought, striking swiftly and straight at your emotional center, as all the greatest singers and songs do. And the irregular bar lengths that divide the choruses from the verses keep things consistently quirky and surprising.

So, “Houses” would be worthy of immortality even if it weren’t punctuated by some juicy Neil Young lead guitar lines. But those laser-like riffs sure do add to the bounty. As immediately identifiable as his primal, succinctly phrased licks and inimitable tone are, it’s all the more shocking to learn that he wasn’t even playing through an amp in the studio but plugging his guitar straight into the mixing board instead. In other words, it’s all in his fingers.

Weinberg recorded another album, this time for David Geffen’s Asylum label, but after issues arose with her manager, the deal was scuttled, and the recording was lost to the mists of history. Weinberg walked away from the music-biz machinery, but her first album was rediscovered and reissued in 2001, with “Houses” added as a bonus track. The world got to hear the tune in its original home when Greasepaint Smile was finally released in 2015. Weinberg’s work found new generations of fans, and “Houses” has been covered by Jeff Tweedy, Courtney Barnett, and other admirers along the way.

-Jim Allen

Photo: David Elliott/Courtesy of Numero Group