{{Short description|American singer-songwriter and writer (1952–2015)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2024}} {{Infobox musical artist | background = person | name = Tia Blake | image = Tia Blake.png | image_upright = | image_size = | landscape = <!-- yes, if wide image, otherwise leave blank --> | alt = | caption = Blake on the cover of her 1971 debut album | birth_name = Christiana Elizabeth Wallman | alias = Tia Wallman | birth_date = {{Birth date|1952|04|13}} | birth_place = Columbus, Georgia, U.S. | origin = Paris, France | death_date = {{Death date and age|2015|06|17|1952|04|13}} | death_place = Pinehurst, North Carolina, U.S. | genre = Folk | occupation = Singer-songwriter, writer, editor | instrument = Vocals, acoustic guitar | discography = | years_active = 1971–1979 | label = Société française de production | spouse = <!-- Use article title or common name --> }}
'''Christiana Elizabeth''' "'''Tia'''" '''Wallman''' (April 13, 1952 – June 17, 2015), known professionally as '''Tia Blake''', was an American singer-songwriter and writer. She recorded the 1971 album ''Folk Songs & Ballads: Tia Blake and Her Folk-Group'', which was released in France in a small pressing and reissued in 2011. Later accounts have described it as a lost or rediscovered folk album, and commentators have compared Blake with singers including Nick Drake and Nico.
Wallman was born in Columbus, Georgia, and grew up in North Carolina. In 1960, during a custody dispute, she and her siblings were kidnapped by her father, who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He was arrested after they were found and later fled the country. Wallman moved to Paris in 1970, formed Her Folk Group, recorded her only studio album, and performed once at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in support of it. She later recorded demos and rehearsal tapes in Paris, moved to Montreal, recorded songs for CBC Radio, and sang backing vocals on a song by Daniel Lavoie.
After graduating from Smith College in 1989, Wallman worked as a freelance writer and editor. Under the name Tia Wallman, she published work in ''Granta'', including a memoir about travelling to Saigon during the Vietnam War to search for her father. She also co-wrote a comedy piece with her mother that was performed at the 2007 New York Fringe Festival. Wallman died of breast cancer in 2015, aged 63.
== Biography == Christiana Elizabeth Wallman was born in Columbus, Georgia, on April 13, 1952,<ref name="Record Store Day" /> and grew up in North Carolina.<ref name="UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries" /> She had six siblings.<ref name="Wallman 2006">{{Cite web |last=Wallman |first=Tia |date=2006-07-14 |title=We Went to Saigon |url=https://granta.com/we-went-to-saigon/ |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=Granta |language=en-US}}</ref> Her father, Jack, worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 1960, after her parents separated, he kidnapped Wallman and her siblings during a custody dispute and kept them for seven months. After the children were found, he was arrested and later fled the country.<ref name="Wallman 2006" />
In 1970, Wallman graduated from high school and worked for Farrar, Straus and Giroux in New York City for six months before moving to Paris.<ref name="UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries">{{Cite web |title=Tia Blake Collection, 1956-2019 |url=https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/20444/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries}}</ref> There she met Benito Merlino, a Sicilian folksinger, record-store owner and record producer.<ref name="All Night Flight Records" /> She learned to play guitar<ref name="Record Store Day" /> and spent time at Disco'Thé, a record shop in the Latin Quarter, where she sometimes sang. At the shop she met two young guitarists who played with her, forming Her Folk Group.<ref name="Bandcamp" />
Merlino introduced Wallman to his contacts in the record industry.<ref name="All Night Flight Records" /> She met Michel Bachelet and Jean-Paul Smets, respectively the owner and artists and repertoire manager of Société française de production (SFP), a small French record label. They invited her to record her debut album<ref name="Record Store Day">{{Cite web |title=Tia Blake |url=https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/9953 |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Record Store Day}}</ref> at Pierre Barouh's Studios Saravah.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-12-14 |title=The Best Reissues of 2022 |url=https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-reissues/the-best-reissues-of-2022 |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=Bandcamp Daily}}</ref> She recorded an album of public-domain folk songs and ballads under the name Tia Blake,<ref name="All Night Flight Records" /> with the group accompanying her.<ref name="Bandcamp">{{Cite web |title=Folksongs & Ballads, by Tia Blake and her Folk-Group |url=https://tiablakeandherfolk-group.bandcamp.com/album/folksongs-ballads |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Bandcamp |language=en}}</ref> It was released in France in 1971 as ''Folk Songs & Ballads: Tia Blake and Her Folk-Group'', with few copies produced.<ref name="All Night Flight Records">{{Cite web |title=Tia Blake And Her Folk-Group – Folksongs & Ballads |url=https://allnightflightrecords.com/products/tia-blake-and-her-folk-group-folksongs-ballads-2 |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=All Night Flight Records |language=en}}</ref> A month after the album's release, Wallman and her group performed at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier to promote it. In 1973, she recorded demos and rehearsal tapes with a guitarist named Jack.<ref name="UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries" />
In September 1976, while living in Montreal, Wallman responded to a call from CBC Radio for songs by local artists. She recorded a demo tape of three originals at a CBC studio, including one song for her father and another for an old boyfriend. The producer found nothing usable and returned the tape to her.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weiss |first=Steven |date=February 2017 |title=Tapes on Open Reels: Tia Blake at the Southern Folklife Collection |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/twentieth-century-music/article/abs/tapes-on-open-reels-tia-blake-at-the-southern-folklife-collection/2A9270E292CFE86F0DB0542314432E4A |journal=Twentieth-Century Music |language=en |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=149–151 |doi=10.1017/S1478572217000123 |issn=1478-5722 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> She later sang backing vocals on "Boule Qui Roule", a song from Daniel Lavoie's 1979 album ''Nirvana Bleu''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Daniel Lavoie – Nirvana Bleu |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/1408814-Daniel-Lavoie-Nirvana-Bleu |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Discogs |date=September 1979}}</ref>
Wallman graduated from Smith College in 1989 and won the Elizabeth Drew Writing Prize. Living in North Carolina, she worked as a freelance writer and editor.<ref name="UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries" /> She published two pieces in ''Granta'' under the name Tia Wallman. The first was a memoir about travelling to Saigon with her sister during the Vietnam War to find her father, who worked for the CIA; the second was published after her death.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tia Wallman |url=https://granta.com/contributor/tia-wallman/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Granta}}</ref> In 2006, she co-wrote a 10-minute comedy piece with her mother, Joan Blake, which was staged at the 2007 New York Fringe Festival.<ref name="PinesFunerals 2015" />
In 2011, Wallman's debut album was reissued on CD by Water Music, together with her Paris demos and CBC Montreal recordings.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tia Blake And Her Folk-Group – Folksongs & Ballads |website=Discogs |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/6754582-Tia-Blake-And-Her-Folk-Group-Folksongs-Ballads |access-date=2024-02-05}}</ref> The album has been described as a lost or rediscovered album,<ref name="Record Store Day" /> and it circulated among collectors during the 1990s and 2000s.<ref name="All Night Flight Records" /> Commentators have compared Blake with Nick Drake, Nico, Sibylle Baier, Bridget St. John, and Vashti Bunyan.<ref name="Bandcamp" />
Wallman died of breast cancer in Pinehurst, North Carolina, on June 17, 2015, aged 63. She was buried next to her brothers Chris and Peter in North Hatley, Quebec, Canada.<ref name="PinesFunerals 2015">{{Cite web |date=2015-06-20 |title=Christiana (Tia) Elizabeth Wallman |url=https://pinesfunerals.com/obits/christiana-tia-elizabeth-wallman/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=PinesFunerals |language=en-US}}</ref> The Tia Blake Collection is held at Wilson Library in North Carolina and includes audio recordings, images, documents, and written works by Wallman.<ref name="UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries" />
== Works == === Discography === * ''Folk Songs and Ballads: Tia Blake and Her Folk-group'' (LP), SFP, Paris, 1971. ** Reissued by Water Music, California, in 2011, together with Paris demos (1973) and CBC Montreal recordings (1976) ** Reissued and remastered by Ici Bientôt, Paris, in 2022 * ''Tia Blake, Paris and Montreal Demos 1973–1976'' (EP), Yep Roc Records, 2018.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/sfc/index.php/category/tia-blake/ |title=Happy 2019! A look back at 2018 |publisher=Southern Folklife Collection |date=2 Jan 2019}}</ref>
=== Publications === * "We Went to Saigon", ''Granta'', July 14, 2006 * "Forbidden Games", ''Granta'', March 9, 2017
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Bandcamp|id=tiablakeandherfolk-group}} * [https://soundcloud.com/tsq2/street-hassle-05-08-12-tia Street Hassle: Tia Blake], KZSU, May 8, 2012 * [https://pinesfunerals.com/obits/christiana-tia-elizabeth-wallman/ Tia Blake's obituary] * [https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/20444/ Tia Blake Collection, 1956-2019] at the Wilson Library
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Tia}} Category:1952 births Category:2015 deaths Category:20th-century American memoirists Category:20th-century American singer-songwriters Category:20th-century American women guitarists Category:20th-century American guitarists Category:20th-century American women singers Category:20th-century American singers Category:20th-century American women writers Category:20th-century American folk musicians Category:21st-century American memoirists Category:21st-century American women writers Category:American acoustic guitarists Category:American comedy writers Category:American folk guitarists Category:American folk singers Category:American women editors Category:American women folk musicians Category:American women folk singers Category:American women memoirists Category:American women singer-songwriters Category:Deaths from breast cancer in North Carolina Category:Folk musicians from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Folk musicians from North Carolina Category:Kidnapped American children Category:Musicians from Columbus, Georgia Category:Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Singer-songwriters from North Carolina Category:Smith College alumni Category:Writers from Columbus, Georgia Category:Writers from North Carolina