Following the release of her fourth album, Enter Now Brightness, in February, New Zealander Nadia Reid delves into the familial and folk shadows of one of music’s most mythologised figures. Reid has released a digital double A-side that goes beyond mere tribute to intergenerational conversation: a cover of Nick Drake’s “Poor Boy” paired, strikingly, with his mother Molly Drake‘s spectral retort, “Poor Mum.”
Reid’s connection to the Drake canon was first cemented through her contribution to the 2023 Chrysalis Records anthology, The Endless Coloured Ways – The Songs Of Nick Drake, which featured her rendition of “Poor Boy”, released by Nick Drake in 1971 on Bryter Layter (read our 50th Anniversary Article here).
Molly Drake, a talented, if entirely private, creative spirit, was moved to compose “Poor Mum” shortly after hearing her son’s recorded lament. Critically, Molly Drake harboured no professional aspirations; her recordings were intimate documents, private entertainments confined to the family sphere. Consequently, “Poor Mum” remained unreleased during the lifetimes of either mother or son, existing only as a spectral echo in the familial archive until recent decades.
Nadia Reid’s decision to record both songs in the same session and to release them as companion pieces is a brilliant move. It collapses the decades and the divide between the public lament (Nick’s song) and the private, domestic response (Molly’s). In Reid’s hands, “Poor Boy” is delivered not as an untouchable relic, but as a living piece of dialogue, its self-pity perhaps gently chastened by the ensuing maternal perspective.
Nadia shared:
“When I was given the privilege of recording one of Nick Drake’s songs for a Chrysalis Records compilation, this Molly Drake song was also mentioned. I can’t quite remember why, but I fell for it instantly. For a moment, I thought it might even belong on one of my own albums.
The song struck me in that deep, hidden place. God. I could see myself as poor old Mum, and suddenly I felt how we are all, in some way, guilty of taking our mothers’ dreams away, little by little. The sacrifices of mothers so often go unseen.
It’s a beautiful song, and somewhat tragic that the Drakes never witnessed how far their music would travel. But as it goes, true and good art lives forever.”
Stream: https://nadiareid.lnk.to/PRMPR