On a Tuesday morning nearly five years ago, Chelsie Field, in the midst of grieving a romantic loss, returned home from work to find only the skeletal remains of her childhood home.

“I knew these were two pivotal moments in my life,” said Field, 30, reflecting on the breakup in 2018 that preceded the fire at her childhood home in Shelburne Falls. “It’s like when people look back on their life and know, ‘That was a turning point.’”

Field, who now resides in Greenfield, said the breakup followed by the loss of most of her material possessions in the house fire forced her to pause and “reflect on what was really important” in her life. 

“I really only had my friends, my family and my community, and the clothes on my back,” she said. “That’s a sobering position to be in.”

Field, who goes by the stage name Wallace Field, wasn’t always a songwriter. On her 21st birthday, she was gifted a baritone ukulele, a gift that “opened up the keys to the kingdom of songwriting,” she said. For years, she wrote in secret.

It was those pivotal months in 2018, however, that pushed her to share her talent with the community. 

“I wanted to see how it felt to finally perform my songs,” she said. “I started performing later on that fall. (Those first few performances) were scary. I’ve been performing publicly for about four years or so now, and it’s still scary. I don’t know if that feeling ever goes away.”

Field was a member of the local folk band Ona Canoa, which formed in 2018, before launching her solo career. She’s played in venues throughout Franklin and Hampshire counties, and in 2021, she released an EP, “Crystal Mirror,” which was self-recorded in the early stages of the pandemic.

And on Friday, after four years in the making, Field released the first single and title track off her upcoming debut studio album, “All Costs.” 

In the single’s accompanying music video, Field, dressed in a silk nightgown, walks barefoot through the gutted interior of her family’s home. She passes through studs where the walls once stood, twirls through her childhood bedroom and tears a plastic sheet off the original brick fireplace. The video was filmed after the fire, but before renovations began, she said. 

“It’s a pretty haunting scene,” she said. “I knew this song needed to be filmed in that space.”

Field said she was the only one living in the house at the time of the fire, and at the time, she was preparing to move. Many of her material possessions were packed up and stacked on the first floor of the house. 

“My dad grew up in that house,” she said. “It’s been in my family for almost 100 years. It was the plan for my mom and him to start renovating the house for them to move in.”

The home has since been renovated and this past fall, her parents were finally able to move in, she said.

“There are so many chapters that have been open for a while,” Field said. “The album, the renovation— the fact it’s all tying up now feels kind of cathartic.”

The song and resulting album, in essence, were born from the “literal ashes” of the house fire and the “metaphorical ashes” of a breakup.  

“I’m really happy with the way it turned out,” she said. “I definitely think it’s the most personal and beautiful project I’ve ever done. I’m really proud of it.”

“All Costs” the album debuts on March 27, the fifth anniversary of the house fire. The album release show will be on April 1 at the Parlor Room in Northampton, with tickets available Jan. 20. Two more singles and at least one more music video will precede the album release.

Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.

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