New Jersey Art-Folk band Speed the Plough have released “A Saint, Restored,” the latest release from their LP venerable. It is a new version of a vintage song by the group that features Anna Clemente, a professor of harpsichord in Florence, Italy. The group hopes that it’ll mark the beginning of an ongoing recording collaboration between STP and Clemente. Spped The Plough are long time associates of and collaborators with legendary New Jersey indie band The Feelies.

Plough founder John Baumgartner recounts the story behind this performance:

“I received a Facebook message from someone unknown to me at the time, Anna Clemente, about two years ago asking if I was the person who wrote “A Plan, Revised,” a song I wrote for my first band The Trypes, which appeared on a Coyote Records compilation around 1982. I responded that, yes, I wrote that song and asked why she was asking. I didn’t expect the nature of her reply. She said the song was a particular favorite of hers and her late husband and that they listened to it often. She asked if I would send her the lyrics, which I did gladly.

“The most mind-blowing aspect of this was when I learned that she is a professor of harpsichord at a music conservatory in Florence and her husband, the luthier John Weissenrieder, were fans of my music. I still haven’t asked how they found this song on a relatively obscure American indie release.

“Well, we corresponded back and forth for a while, sharing videos of her performances at the Musee de’ Medici and videos of us at small NYC clubs. Flash forward to spring 2024 and I bought a new keyboard and started fooling around with the harpsichord sounds and started playing ‘A Saint, Restored.’ I happened to record it and sat on it for a week. Then I had this idea. Sort of a “nothing ventured, nothing gained” thing. So I sent it to Anna and asked if she would be interested in doing a proper harpsichord performance. The direction she took us in couldn’t have been more beautiful.”

A Saint, Restored

A hard sea pushes up
against the shore so eagerly
he turned me away last night
I’m rolling back just like a wave
Storing up the heat
until the time I need it most
all’s well endings
don’t forget what we supposed

ch-
Swimming in the river of rain

I never thought I’d be back again
Floating on the deepest swell
I never loved you all that well
A blue moon staggers west
the other side of my desire
take me into your arms
hold me close when I start flying

ch-
Standing on the mountain top

falling down and I can’t stop
wind screaming in my ear
I’m just happy you’re not here
A hard sea pushes up
against the shore so eagerly
he turned me away last night
I’m rolling back just like a wave

ch-
Swimming in the river of rain

I never thought I’d be back again
Floating on the deepest swell
I never loved you all that well
Standing on the mountain top
falling down and I can’t stop
wind screaming in my ear
I’m just happy you’re not here

order “A, Saint Restored” HERE