VIA PRESS RELEASE | Anthology Recordings has shared two new songs by the late folk-rock pioneer and visual artist Norma Tanega: “Maggie My Dog” and “Elephants Angels and Roses.” “Maggie My Dog” is a previously unreleased demo found in Tanega’s Claremont, CA, home after she passed in 2019 at age 80, while “Elephants Angels and Roses” was originally featured on her elusive 1971 sophomore album, I Don’t Think it Will Hurt if You Smile. The two songs are seeing first and new light as part of an archival music collection, I’m The Sky: Studio and Demo Recordings, 1964–1971, due out May 6th and which surveys her two commercially released studio albums, an unreleased LP, and a trove of unheard demos.
In tandem with I’m The Sky…, Anthology Editions will be releasing a comprehensive visual biography, Try to Tell a Fish About Water, on April 26th (9″ x1 0″ trade paperback, 160 pages) that details Tanega’s career as a visual artist. The book is a compendium of her paintings, musings, and more, shared alongside reminiscences by some of her closest friends and collaborators of her winding journey through art, music, and community.
The first half of I’m The Sky… collects songs from Tanega’s two studio albums, 1966’s Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog (produced and arranged by Herb Bernstein) and I Don’t Think…, as well two tracks from an unreleased 1969 album, Snow Cycles. Her rich, resonant alto shines throughout, the songs ranging from Walkin’ My Cat…’s sprightly folk-pop, to the moodier, more psychedelic-tinged tracks from I Don’t Think…, and always showcasing her whimsical, joy-filled spirit, and idiosyncratic meter and songwriting.
The second half deep dives into the well of unreleased demos discovered in her Claremont home, most featuring just Tanega and her guitar. The 27 unadorned recordings highlight the wit, poetry, intimacy and depth of feeling in her songs, which have continued to resonate with later generations of artists—including Yo La Tengo and They Might Be Giants, who have each covered her 1965 hit, “Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog.”
While perhaps best recognized for her own recordings, or for her multiple songs written or co-written for Dusty Springfield (who was also her partner for a number of years), or nowadays for “You’re Dead” (her song that soundtracks the opening credits of both the film and TV show What We Do in the Shadows), Tanega was also a wildly talented visual artist. She was known for her striking, colorful, expressionistic paintings, in addition to being a central pillar in the Claremont creative community as an artist, musician, teacher, gallerist, and more.
Try to Tell a Fish About Water offers an overview of her work and shares previously unseen photos, illustrations, journal entries, and other ephemera. In compiling images of Tanega’s art with reflections and remembrances from some of those who knew her best, the book draws a portrait of a beloved, distinctive creator celebrated not only for her extraordinary talent, but also for her contagious spirit, humor, generosity, and warmth.
Tanega, according to her friends, liked to say that she had three lives: music, art, and teaching. “It is typical of Norma that while other people have stages of their lives, Norma had three lives. She was just too big for one,” explains her friend and colleague Moana Vercoe in Try to Tell a Fish About Water. Perhaps now, through these releases that celebrate her art, music, and life, she will get her fourth.
