Roots musings

On Sept. 8, MaMuse will headline the maiden installment of Chico Performances’ “Chico Voices” series, in Harlen Adams Theatre. Never mind that the two haven’t lived in town for nearly three years. Despite their relocation to Sebastopol, however, Sarah Nutting and Karisha Longaker’s musical roots will forever be planted in Chico.

“MaMuse was born in Chico, raised in Chico, and fattened up in Chico,” Longaker said during a recent interview. “[We’re] absolutely feeling a total alliance and gratitude and extreme love for that place and all people who have loved us up and encouraged us to keep going with our music. That show in Chico is gonna be different than people have experienced us before. It’s going to be worthy. It’ll be the same heart of MaMuse but more filled out. Not our most expanded, biggest hips we’ve ever had, but we’ll be swaying.”

Nutting and Longaker formed MaMuse in 2009, and they have enjoyed a devoted fan base ever since. The two write effervescent, earnest folk music, blending their voices with a warm, emotionally charged timbre, criss-crossing melodies with a fluidity akin to improvisation, and what feels like deep musical intuition that resonates with Chico.

MaMuse has also performed extensively beyond Chico, touring throughout the U.S. and even performing on A Prairie Home Companion in 2012 after winning first place in the radio show’s duet contest.

“MaMuse has always steered us in ways that don’t always make sense or aren’t conventional or practical, but when we listen, we’re usually guided to unexpected gifts,” Nutting said.

Over the years, the duo have invited a range of guest players to expand its sound, including Chico’s Mike Wofchuck, who’s provided a steady heartbeat as a regular percussionist, and singer/songwriter Molly Hartwell, who added third harmony parts to several songs on MaMuse’s 2015 album, Heart Nouveau.

For the recording of their new album, Prayers of Freedom, Nutting and Longaker made their most ambitious adjustment to date, bringing in a wide array of guests, from the East Bay activist Thrive Choir to activist/musician Lyla June. They raised nearly $40,000 through an Indiegogo campaign for the album (their fifth), on which they stretched their airy harmonies into sturdy “anthems for freedom and justice,” as they put it.

With a name like Prayers for Freedom, “it’s kind of a tall order,” Nutting said. “It shows our evolution as beings and musicians; taking it from the simpleness of our little duet, then bringing in the bigger global perspective and diversity of other friends, choir members, people from other cultures, that is the essence of this new album. It’s a good marker of where we’re currently at.”

In celebration of the release, Longaker and Nutting have been joined by Wofchuck and guitarist Walter Strauss and have been touring the West Coast and performing with local choirs and communities in an effort to recreate the album.

“It’s not exactly who was on the album, but it captures the essence of collaboration,” Nutting said.

With so much change and growth in less than a decade, it’ll be interesting to see where the pair end up, but for now, Nutting says, “MaMuse for me is home.

“It’s a relationship I fully trust, the most committed I’ve felt to any personal, or beyond personal relationship in my life,” she added. “I can’t know what’s gonna happen, but somehow I trust it, I’m held in this relationship, not to Karisha, [but] to my muse, my music. Each of us is in our own relationship with the muse, and coming together and sharing is what makes it even more potent.”