tvsmith.de

In late 2023, just months before her death in January of this year, folk and counterculture icon Melanie and her son Beau Jarred Schekeryk began work on what she intended to be her next album, the Second Hand Smoke collection of covers. Several songs had already been completed when she died...

And then there was “I Will Walk You Home," from punk icons The Adverts second album, 1979’s Cast of Thousands. Melanie was introduced to the song by her manager Dave Thompson, a long-time supporter of Adverts frontman and songwriter TV Smith (Thompson ran TV’s fan club in the early 1980s), and immediately fell in love with it. Describing the song as “dark and dangerous,” she penciled it in as Second Hand Smoke’s closing number. She also began sketching out her version, singing along with the original record, trying out vocal techniques, harmonies and effects, and recording her efforts for future reference. It was never more than an experiment, but Beau Jarred never forgot the sheer power of his mom’s voice as she adlibbed alongside Smith’s original vocal, nor the passion with which she echoed the simple solitary lyric that traces through the song’s coda.