Every week, the Milwaukee Music Premiere sponsored by Density Studios connects the city’s artists with our listening audience. If you’re an artist with a track you’d like us to debut exclusively on Radio Milwaukee, head over to our Music Submission page to learn how.
Pulling album material from a 10-year window leaves a musician with quite a few elements to play with: beats, melodies, life events to turn into lyrics and much more. Milwaukee music stalwart Mark Waldoch had that decade of stuff filed away and yet still lacked a key component to turn it into … something.
It turned out he needed two components: drummer Dan Didier (of The Promise Ring fame) and bassist Paul Hancock (of Testa Rosa), who joined with Waldoch to form The Hallelujah Ward.
That trio started shaping material, both old and new, into songs and then shaping those songs into an album. What resulted is Everybody Swoons, the LP due out May 30 that includes the track we’re helping The Hallelujah Ward premiere today.
The seeds of “Nobody’s Ghost” come from the latter part of Waldoch’s 10 years of gathering — the death of Low drummer/vocalist Mimi Parker in November of 2022. He felt that loss acutely and penned the song as a “hopeful and bombastic homage to, and a way to work through the loss of, the inspiring musician.”
Waldoch’s vocals in “Nobody’s Ghost” make that evident. He goes from barely contained grief in the song’s opening moments to unrestrained (still melodic) yowling by the end. Those two points have plenty of room between them on a track that runs almost seven minutes, but Waldoch is economical with his lyrics that comprise a mere 16 lines. The sparsity doesn’t lessen the impact:
I have nothing to say
That won’t make you cry
Though if it doesn’t make you cry
Then I had nothing to say anyway
Around and between Waldoch’s words is musicianship that makes the almost seven minutes feel much shorter. The trio add little twists and turns that match the emotions behind the song, keeping you alert behind the wheel without feeling like you’re going to careen into a ditch.
Overall, it’s an enjoyable drive you can take on demand using the player at the top of the page or by catching “Nobody’s Ghost” on 88Nine throughout today (6:30 and 10:30 a.m.; 2:30 and 6:30 p.m.).
The track will be a part of Everybody Swoons when it comes out May 30, but you can hear it in advance at a special co-listening party with Collections of Colonies of Bees at The Wiggle Room on May 28 (which just so happens to be Waldoch's birthday). The Hallelujah Ward also has a couple live gigs coming up, including at Cactus Club on June 6.
