Cover of the “When It Comes” single by Scott Folsom. Design by Sarah Violette
Auburn native and musician Scott Folsom still can’t talk about the Oct. 25 mass shooting in Lewiston without becoming emotional.
One of his high school classmates lost his son. The wife of one of Folsom’s cousins was shot three times but survived. He and his adult daughter and son all know multiple people impacted by the shooting.
In mid-November, still distraught, Folsom wrote “When It Comes,” as a way of putting down in words what he wanted to say about the shooting.
The song and accompanying video made by Sarah Violette was released last week.
“And you don’t know what to do, can’t believe it’s real, as you suffer through the sorrow and the pain/What I am going through, how the hell you gonna heal/When you recognize the faces and the names/When it comes to your town,” Folsom sings with an earnest delivery that quietly seethes with despair and rage.
The video shows footage of Lewiston, interspersed with national headlines about mass shootings across the country.
Folsom lives in Hope and owns Schooner Landing restaurant in Damariscotta. Now in his mid-60s, he’s been a singer-songwriter for most of his life and released the album “Simple Talk” on Columbia Records in 1988. Last year, he released one called “Spackle.”
Folsom said he felt sick to his stomach for a month, and working on the song was difficult. “It’s such a weird feeling, your whole memory of the place and everything is just changed. I was going between completely sad and upset and then really angry that this (expletive) keeps happening over and over.”
He recorded the song with members of The Boneheads at the band’s studio in Hallowell. “Once I figured out what I wanted to say, it took a few days to find my way into the song and just a few short days to complete,” said Folsom.
Folsom said he avoided getting overly political with “When It Comes” because gun control continues to be a polarizing issue in the U.S. But he also knew he couldn’t remain quiet.
“The point of the song is how many times in how many towns is this going to happen until we say enough and let’s do something about it,” said Folsom. “I don’t know what the frigging answers are, but it seems as though we could do a little better. The whole thing is insanity.”
Folsom was hoping that writing “When It Comes” would be cathartic, but he hasn’t experienced that yet. “I’ve done songs in the past where I needed to get through some emotion, but this one? I don’t think I ever will.”
Amy Ray (left) and Emily Saliers of Indigo Girls. Photo by Jeremy Cowart
Santa Fe, New Mexico-based filmmaker Alexandria Bombach made a documentary called “It’s Only Life After All,” about folk-rock duo Indigo Girls. The film opens on April 10, and you can see it at Space on April 13. Tickets are $10. Get them at space538.org
Bombach was introduced to the music of Indigo Girls while at summer camp when she was 12 years old. She’s been a huge fan ever since.
In 2018, Bombach met band members Amy Ray and Emily Saliers through mutual friend Kathryn Horan after an Indigo Girls performance. “I was just blown away by their humility and their interest in my filmmaking,” said Bombach.
While sitting in the green room that night, Bombach quickly did an internet search to see if a documentary about Indigo Girls existed. It did not.
Bombach tapped Horan to ask Ray and Saliers if they’d agree to such a project. After seeing Bombach’s film “On Her Shoulders,” about human rights activist Nadia Murad, they said yes.
Over the next couple of years, Bombach interviewed Ray and Saliers and worked with hundreds of hours of archival footage and photographs that date back to the musicians’ childhoods. The film walks through them becoming friends in high school and forming their musical partnership in the mid-80s and includes interviews and footage up to present day.
Bombach said it was difficult to condense Ray and Salier’s story into a feature-length film. “It took a lot of really deciding what was actually important. This is not the typical music documentary where we’re going through the tent poles of their albums.”
She knew the film was done when it got accepted into the prestigious Sundance Film Festival last year.
The most riveting part of “It’s Only Life After All” are the interview sessions during which Ray and Saliers speak frankly with Bombach about their lives.
Ray opened up extensively about gender, homophobia, sexism and the anger issues she’s had to work through over the course of her career as a part of Indigo Girls and as a solo artist.
Saliers was also candid when speaking about her alcoholism that almost tore Indigo Girls apart. “Sobriety is the only thing I’ve ever done that I’m actually proud of. It’s the hardest and best thing,” Saliers said in the film.
Bombach appreciates how open Ray and Saliers were. “These two people are incredibly emotionally intelligent and self-aware. They were very trusting and trusted the process and wanted to offer this, and it was a real honor that they did.”
“It’s Only Life After All” is a line from Indigo Girl’s best-known song, “Closer To Fine,” which is enjoying a resurgence since being featured in the “Barbie” film.
Bombach never had a doubt that it would be her film’s title.
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