Mary Lattimore - Goodbye, Hotel Arkada (Inkwell Vinyl) Vinyl LP

On And Then He Wrapped His Wings Around Me, Lattimore turns to two of her closest collaborators—songwriter Meg Baird, her partner on 2018’s Ghost Forests, and accordionist-composer Walt McClements, with whom she has toured and performed—to evoke a cherished childhood memory. As a kid, Lattimore won a drawing contest through a country radio station and got to see Sesame Street Live! in Asheville. Backstage, she and her mother were embraced by the benevolent icon Big Bird, who “gave me an incredible hug with his scratchy yellow wings.” The trio channels the enveloping warmth of that moment, capturing the sensation of innocent escape—flying toward a childhood dream that is just out of reach, surreal, and tinged with melancholy. In a rare vocal passage in Lattimore’s repertoire, Baird softly hums over rolling harp washes above McClements’ tranquil drone; for a fleeting instant, the listener is held in a sublime canary-yellow embrace.