Helen Purdum (née Hall, also known as Mud's Sis and Nessie Lessons, among other nicknames)[1] is an American artist and long-time Residents associate, best known for her guest vocals on a number of The Residents' albums, beginning with Commercial Album in 1980. She was the art director of Ralph Records from 1980 until its reformatting into New Ralph in 1983.[2]
Helen married The Residents' producer and engineer Hardy Fox in 1976; they divorced amicably in 1984 and remained friends for the remainder of Fox's life.[1][3] She has worked with The Residents sporadically in the years since, most recently appearing on the Charles Bobuck solo track "Let Me Tell You (About It)" in 2017.
Today Purdum lives in North Carolina and remains active as a ceramic artist, creating unique sculptures inspired by "the human condition, in all its forms".[4] Since 2007 she has been a resident artist at Grovewood Village in Asheville, North Carolina.
History with The Residents[]
Helen Hall was a member of the group of friends who surrounded The Residents in the 1970s. She married the group's producer and co-composer Hardy Fox in 1976.[1] Around this time, Fox composed the instrumental suite "Leapmus" for Helen, which would later form the basis for a number of tracks on The Residents' 1977 album Fingerprince.
She joined Ralph Records following the expansion of their roster in 1979 and later served as art director.[2] Her earliest known recorded appearance with The Residents was on Commercial Album in 1980, for which she provided vocals on several tracks, credited only as "Mud's Sis".[1] This was followed by another uncredited appearance on "Voices on the Air", the opening track of their 1981 album Mark of the Mole.
Her first appearance with the group as "Nessie Lessons" was as lead vocalist on the song "Happy Home" on their 1982 album The Tunes of Two Cities. Around this time, she received the nickname "Missy DeLong Day" from Fox after the recently-born child of an acquaintance (named Missy DeLong); this nickname inspired the title of the instrumental "Serenade for Missy" from the same album.[5]
Helen toured with The Residents on their Mole Show tour between 1982 and 1983, performing vocals for "Voices of the Air" and "Happy Home". For the final performance, the "Uncle Sam Mole Show" in Washington, D.C. on October 7th 1983, she was stricken with laryngitis and replaced onstage by J. Raoul Brody, dressed as Uncle Sam.[2]
After Ralph Records[]
Nessie Lessons by Charles Bobuck
Helen left Ralph Records in 1983 after the near-split of the company led them to downsize operations significantly, moving from their Grove Street headquarters to a much smaller space on Clementina Street.[2] Her final activity with The Residents in this period was an appearance on the song "Hellno" (which Fox had written for her), featured on the group's soundtrack for the 1984 film The Census Taker.
Helen divorced Hardy Fox on amicable terms in 1984 when Fox met and began a relationship with Steven Kloman, who he would later marry.[3] She later married a man she met while collecting census data, taking the name Helen Purdum, and moved to North Carolina.[1] The two couples would occasionally cross the country to spend time with each other over the years.[3]
In 1992 Purdum (as Nessie Lessons) wrote a retrospective review of the group's American Composers Series for the book Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents and made an appearance on the retrospective mash-up album Our Finest Flowers. In 1998 she appeared on the Melody Sumner Carnahan track "The Time Is Now", from the compilation album of the same name.
Purdum began working with clay at the age of 17, despite having no formal art training.[4] After spending a number of years in the corporate world, she decided to devote herself full-time to her craft, studying ceramics at Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina in 2005.[4] In 2007 became a resident artist at Grovewood Village in Asheville. Her sculptures are inspired by "people whose faces seem to personify an ideal", and all of her pieces are one-of-a-kind and "as unique as the subjects that inspire her".
In 2013 she joined Charles Bobuck and The Residents to record "Shake It, Shake It (I Wet My Bed)". This was followed in 2015 by an appearance on the Bobuck track "Snow Song". She also recorded "Let Me Tell You (About It)" with Bobuck prior to his retirement in 2017.
Appearances on Residents releases[]
- Commercial Album (1980) - as "Mud's Sis"
- Mark of the Mole (1981) - uncredited
- The Tunes of Two Cities (1982) - as Nessie Lessons
- Mole Show (1983)
- Title In Limbo with Renaldo & The Loaf (1983)
- The Census Taker (1985)
- Heaven? (1986)
- Mole Show: Live In Holland (1989)
- Our Finest Flowers (1992)
- Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses (1997)
- Commercial DVD (2004)
- The Mole Bag (2009)
- Mole Box (2019)
Credits on Charles Bobuck releases[]
- "Shake It, Shake It (I Wet My Bed)" (2013)
- The Highway (2014)
- THIS (2016)
- "Let Me Tell You (About It)" (2017)
- Egg Booty (2017)
See also[]
External links and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Jim Knipfel and Brian Poole, et al., Faceless Forever - A Residents Encyclopaedia, Cherry Red Books, 2022, pg. 150
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Ian Shirley, Never Known Questions: Five Decades of The Residents, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Charles Bobuck, "Nessie", The Charles Bobuck Story at Crypticorp
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Kari Barrows, "A century celebrated at Biltmore Industries", Mountain Xpress, June 20th 2017
- ↑ "Please pass along a copy to the DeLongs, as 'Serenade for Missy' was derived from naming their youngster Missy. Missy deLong Day has been H's nickname for me ever since he heard of Missy DeLong..." Helen Hall in a handwritten note, ca. 1982