Eli Lev is not your typical folk singer. He’s more like a genealogist with a guitar.
On his new album, Past Lives, the Silver Spring, Maryland-based artist has done something audacious: he’s invited his ancestors to the recording session.
Their voices, captured in old family interviews, are woven throughout the album, creating a conversation between generations that’s both deeply personal and surprisingly universal.
The album is the second instalment of Lev’s ambitious Three Worlds Project, a trilogy that explores the past, present, and future. If his previous album, Present Journey, was about finding his footing in the here and now, Past Lives is about digging in the dirt to find the roots that have been holding him steady all along.
The result is a collection of songs that are as much about where we come from as they are about where we’re going.
The album opens with “Echo,” a song that sets the tone for what’s to come. Over a bed of acoustic guitar and a simple, insistent beat, we hear the voice of Lev’s Bubbe Sarah, born in Poland in 1892.
She speaks of a world that is a distant memory, a place of shtetls and steamships. Then Lev’s voice comes in, clear and bright, singing of being “washed in waves of time.”
It’s a powerful juxtaposition, the old world and the new, the crackle of an old recording and the clarity of a modern one. It’s also a pretty good summary of the album’s central project: to make the past present, to give voice to the ghosts that haunt our family trees.
From there, the album moves into “Where We Come From,” a foot-stomping anthem that celebrates the messy, complicated business of heritage.
Lev, who has both Jewish and Appalachian roots, sings of “a thousand stories in my blood.” We hear from his Uncle Ben, who talks of life on a farm and in a mill in the American South.
The song is a celebration of the working-class lives that are often forgotten in the grand narratives of history. It’s a song for anyone who has ever looked at an old family picture and wondered about the people in it.
Not all the songs on Past Lives are so explicitly about family history. “My Wish Was You” is a whimsical love song that finds Lev looking back on a past romance with a sense of gratitude rather than regret.
It’s a sweet, simple song that provides a nice counterpoint to the weightier themes of the album. “Who I Was” is a more philosophical track that explores the idea of reincarnation and the many lives we live.
“Who I was back then / Is who I am,” Lev sings, a line that could be interpreted in a number of ways. Is he talking about past lives in a literal sense, or is he simply acknowledging the ways in which our past selves continue to shape who we are today? The song doesn’t offer any easy answers, which is part of its charm.
The album’s emotional core is “Our Friends,” a song about grief and remembrance. The song is a tribute to those who have passed on, but it’s not a sombre affair.
Instead, it’s a celebration of the enduring power of friendship and the idea that those we’ve lost are never really gone. “Those who are no longer seen / Are just as real as you and me,” Lev sings, a line that is both comforting and a little bit spooky. It’s a song that will likely resonate with anyone who has ever lost someone they love.
Past Lives is a record that takes risks. The use of his ancestors’ voices could have easily come across as a gimmick, but Lev handles it with a deft touch.
He allows their stories to breathe, to exist on their own terms. He doesn’t try to force them into a neat and tidy narrative. Instead, he lets them be what they are: fragments of a larger story, echoes of a time that is both gone and ever-present.
The result is a project that feels less like a history lesson and more like a conversation with the ghosts at the family dinner table.
Lev’s music has been described as “folk-pop,” and that’s as good a label as any. The songs on Past Lives are built on a foundation of acoustic guitar and heartfelt lyrics, but they’re also infused with a pop sensibility that makes them instantly accessible.
The melodies are catchy, the choruses are memorable, and the production is clean and modern. This is not your grandfather’s folk music. It’s something new, something different. It’s music for a generation that is both deeply connected to the past and hurtling toward an uncertain future.
In a world of disposable pop songs and fleeting internet fame, Eli Lev is doing something that feels important. He’s making music that is built to last, music that is rooted in something real.
He’s telling stories that need to be told, stories that remind us that we are all part of a larger human family.
Past Lives is a beautiful and moving collection of songs that will stay with you long after the final notes have faded.
It’s a reminder that our ancestors are always with us, their voices echoing in our own. All we have to do is listen.
