A couple of years ago, Jemima James came across an old roll of film and brought it to Mosher Photo in Vineyard Haven to be developed.
“I thought it might be ruined,” she said on a cloudless day this week, sitting in a small living room overlooking a sweep of ocean with whitecaps rolling in toward Aquinnah.
She recalled the moment when she first took the photos, long ago on a foggy Vineyard morning, and how it felt to revisit the scene years later.
“These fishing pictures came, and they were so beautiful,” she said. “I don’t know if it was because they were old, or that was the light that morning.”
One of the photos, which now adorns her new double-release album, shows several figures silhouetted against the early morning fog at the edge of a pond in West Tisbury. Two of the figures are her sons, Willy and Sam Mason, musicians in their own right, who both perform on When You Get Old, along with a host of other Island musicians Ms. James has played with over the years.
The double album is both a look back and a step forward, including both her latest work for When You Get Old and a much earlier album, At Longview Farm, which was salvaged from the past, dusted off and given a new life. Recorded in 1979 and consigned to a shelf, it captures Ms. James during the three years she lived at Longview Farm, a residential recording studio in North Brookfield.
When You Get Old jumps forward 35 years, keeping the same Americana heartbeat but contrasting the youthful energy of the first with more subtle, introspective harmonies and lyrics, speaking to the many years in between. At Longview Farm happened to be a final offering of studio founder Gil Markle, who dug up the old recordings and remastered them in 2014.
“He sent those to me, and we said, ‘We’ve got to do something with this,’” Ms. James recalled. She gave the record to Willy, who sent it to Team Love Records in New Paltz, N.Y., his first record label, to be produced.
Soon after remastering the old recording. Mr. Markle, who had invited Ms. James to live and work at the studio in the 1970s, passed away.
“I’m really glad he brought it back to life,” Ms. James said with a wistful smile. Stevie Wonder, Paul Winter, John Belushi, The Rolling Stones and many other staples of American music all passed through the studio under his watch. “It’s a huge bag of material that was done there,” Ms. James said.
Last weekend a CD release party was held at the Pathways Living Room Studios. Another party is set for Dec. 15 at The Ritz in Oak Bluffs, and will feature Ms. James in concert with Willy Mason and others who appear on the album, including an opening performance by Islanders Nina Violet and Rosie Guerin.
When You Get Old, recorded in Catskill, N.Y., in 2015, reflects a shift in both Ms. James’s life and music, with her kids grown up and music again taking center stage. These days, Ms. James describes herself as a nomad, having pared down her belongings to an essential few items and drifting from place to place on the Vineyard throughout the year — renting a barn apartment here, housesitting for friends there.
“I’m alone, which I really am loving,” she said. “And it’s the first time I’ve been able to really start focusing on the music.” She saw the new album as a step in the right direction. “It’s starting to get close to sounding more like what I hear in my head. I’m never satisfied with recordings, but the progress is definitely happening.”
Ms. James picked up some of her rootsy, lead-belly musical influences from her father, (grandson of the philosopher and psychologist William James), who among other things played guitar and banjo and showed her a few first chords. But for the most part she taught herself, writing songs from an early age and forging musical bonds across the country.
After a brief stint at the Boston Museum School in the early 1970s, she dropped out to play music full-time with her husband, Michael Mason, later moving to the Vineyard to be closer to his mother and raise their kids. She recalled the many late-night musical parties at their house that Willy and Sam liked so much, and which carried on a long Vineyard tradition.
“There are musicians of all generations here,” she said. “It goes way back.”
She recalled her early friendship with Kate Taylor and Charlie Witham, among others, which continues today. Her current perch in Aquinnah is courtesy of Kate and Charlie’s daughter Liz Witham and her husband, Ken Wentworth, who are traveling in southeast Asia.
When Ms. James’s marriage ended some time ago, she found herself in the same boat as many others on the Island, scrambling to find housing in the summer and winter. Nowadays, even though the shuffle continues, she said, it’s not so bad.
She laughed at the stunning view, visible through wall-to-wall windows high above the sound. “Good situations seem to come up,” she said. “I don’t seem to be scrambling for housing like I was when the kids were young.”
In another shift from the past, the tracks for When You Get Old were meticulously rehearsed before Ms. James entered the studio with members of the Island band Good Night Louise, which back her on the album. The band performed live in the studio, as opposed to studio musicians coming in and working things out on the fly, a common routine in the past.
“We lived with the songs for a long time before recording them, and it worked out well,” she said. Ms. Violet and others provide some overdubbing on the new album, but most of the basic tracks are laid down by Ms. James and the band.
The newer songs have the strength and wisdom of an old oak, compared to the greener and more sprightly, but perhaps less grounded recordings from Longview. Both albums have a similar timeless quality, with lyrics and harmonies built to last.
A long-running career in elder care on the Vineyard has left a deep impression on Ms. James’s life and music. “The work varies a lot because of course it ends,” she said, noting that each patient is unique and presents new challenges that leave her a little stronger and more grounded each time.
“The old people give you a lot,” she said, “sometimes in really, really hard ways. They can be brutal when they’re miserable and going through stuff they don’t want to go through. It’s like the real nitty gritty stuff. So that affects music and everything else I do.”
But for now, at least, elder care has taken a back seat to her music.
“I’m strictly working on music, which I like a lot,” she said. “It’s a big relief after many years of hard work.”
Among other things, she has found herself rediscovering the simple joy of practicing guitar every day, as a sort of meditation, and exploring new techniques.
“I would write songs but I didn’t really focus on just this really technical stuff,” she said, curling her hands around an imaginary guitar. “And I’m really liking that work now, and finding out how important it is.”
She is already working on her sixth album, and preparing for a tour in the near future.
Reflecting on the new releases, she seemed ready to start a new chapter. “The old one, I listen to it, and it’s just like agghh!” she said. “It was just a whole different part of my life then. But I like listening to the new one. It’s like, okay, we’ve made some progress here.”
A CD release party for When You Get Old will be held at the Ritz on Dec. 15 beginning at 7 p.m. At Longview Farm / When You Get Old are available at Alley’s General Store in West Tisbury and Island Music in Vineyard Haven, and online at iTunes and Amazon.com.
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