Mary Lattimore (born 1980) is an American classically trained harpist based in Los Angeles, California. In addition to her solo work and collaborations with fellow Philadelphia musician Jeff Zeigler, she has performed with prominent indie musicians including

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American musician best known as a member of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Mo ...

Kurt Vile Kurt Samuel Vile (born January 3, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He is known for his solo work and as the former lead guitarist of rock band the War on Drugs. Both in the studio and during li ...

, and Steve Gunn.

Biography

Originally from Asheville, North Carolina, Lattimore was raised in western

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

. Her mother was also a harpist, and so Mary learned to play the harp when she was 11 years old. She was not very interested in it at first, but this began to change as she got better at it. She studied at the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music ...

where she worked on the college radio.

Musical career

One of Lattimore's first musical activities was her contribution to the Valerie Project, which released its self-titled debut album in 2007. This album was intended to be an alternative soundtrack to the film '' Valerie and Her Week of Wonders''. Lattimore released her first solo effort in 2012, a self-titled cassette, on Fred Thomas' Life Like imprint. The following year, this album was re-released by Desire Path Recordings as ''The Withdrawing Room''. In 2014, Lattimore and Zeigler released ''Slant of Light'' on

Thrill Jockey Thrill Jockey is an American independent record label established by former Atlantic Records A&R representative Bettina Richards and based in Chicago. History Richards started the label in 1992 with $35,000 of family and personal capital, while ...

. Also that year, Lattimore received a Pew Fellowship grant, which she used to travel around

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

; while doing so, she recorded the album ''At the Dam'', which was released on

Ghostly International Ghostly International is an American independent record label founded in 1999 by Samuel Valenti IV and currently headquartered in Brooklyn, New York City. Chief artists include Matthew Dear, Dabrye (a.k.a. Tadd Mullinix), Com Truise, Tycho, Go ...

in 2016. The album's title was taken from an essay about the Hoover Dam in

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer. Along with Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson and Gay Talese, she is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism. Didion's career began in the 1950s after she won ...

's 1979 book ''

The White Album ''The Beatles'', also referred to colloquially as the White Album, is the ninth studio album and only double album by the English Rock music, rock band the Beatles, released on 22 November 1968. Featuring a plain white sleeve, the cover conta ...

''. On 18 May 2018, Lattimore released the album '' Hundreds of Days'', which received critical acclaim. Lattimore's harp work is featured in an episode of ''

Atlas Obscura ''Atlas Obscura'' is an American-based online magazine and travel company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via user-generated conten ...

'' released in 2021. On Steve Gunn's album ''Other You'' (Matador, August 30, 2021) she contributed to “Sugar Kiss,” an instrumental duet.

Discography

Studio albums * ''The Withdrawing Room'' (Desire Path, 2013) * ''At the Dam'' (

, 2016) * '' Hundreds of Days'' (Ghostly International, 2018) * '' Silver Ladders'' (Ghostly International, 2020) Collaborative albums * ''Slant of Light'' (with Jeff Zeigler) (

, 2014) * ''Ghost Forests'' (with

Meg Baird Meg Baird is an American musician based in San Francisco, California, United States, who, in addition to her solo career, is known as a founding member, lead vocalist, and drummer for Heron Oblivion, along with members from Assemble Head in Sunb ...

) (Three Lobed Recordings, 2018) * ''New Rain Duets'' (with

Mac McCaughan Ralph Lee "Mac" McCaughan (; born July 12, 1967) is an American musician and record label owner, based in North Carolina. His main musical projects have been Superchunk since 1989 and Portastatic since the early 1990s. In 1989 he founded the in ...

) (Three Lobed Recordings, 2019) Compilation albums * ''Luciferin Light'' (Kit, 2015) * ''Collected Pieces'' (Ghostly International, 2017) *''Collected Pieces II'' (Ghostly International, 2021)

References

External links

*
Lattimore
on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

Lattimore discography
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

{{Authority control American harpists 21st-century American composers 21st-century women musicians 21st-century women composers Musicians from Asheville, North Carolina Thrill Jockey artists Ghostly International artists The Valerie Project members 1980 births Living people