Anaïs Mitchell | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Heavily influenced by the confessional alternative folk stylings of Ani DiFranco, Anaïs Mitchell began writing songs when she was 17. Born in Vermont, she attended Middlebury College and traveled throughout the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe studying global politics before alighting in Austin, TX, in the early 2000s. She released her first album, The Song They Sang When Rome Fell, in 2002. Mitchell performed at the Kerrville Folk Festival the following year, where she was awarded with the New Folk award. Her second album, Hymns for the Exiled, came out on Waterbug Records in 2004, and a copy eventually made its way to DiFranco herself. The folk icon attended a few of Mitchells performances and offered her a deal at Righteous Babe Records soon after. The Brightness, Mitchells debut on that label, arrived in February 2007. In 2006, Mitchell debuted her "folk opera" Hadestown in collaboration with arranger Michael Chorney and director Ben T. Matchstick based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and set in a futurist poverty-striken America. A second draft was performed by the a group called the Hadestown Company in 2007. An album entitled Hadestown with appearances from Greg Brown, DiFranco and Bon Ivers Justin Vernon was released on Righteous Babe in March of 2010. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 9 Title: The Song They Sang... When Rome Fell Released: 2002 Tracks: 11 Duration: 40:49 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 The Calling (05:16) 2 Parking Lot Nudie Bar (03:32) 3 Make It Up (03:26) 4 Hymn for the Exiled (02:45) 5 Work Makes Free (03:38) 6 Deliberately (04:55) 7 The Routine (03:42) 8 Orleanna (02:31) 9 The Song They Sang When Rome Fell (03:46) 10 Hold This (04:23) 11 Go Fuck Yourself (02:50) |
 | Album: 2 of 9 Title: Hymns for the Exiled Released: 2004 Tracks: 11 Duration: 38:42 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Before the Eyes of Storytelling Girls (03:05) 2 1984 (02:57) 3 Cosmic American (03:41) 4 The Belly and the Beast (04:50) 5 Orion (04:14) 6 Mockingbird (03:13) 7 I Wear Your Dress (03:04) 8 Quecreek Flood (04:16) 9 A Hymn for the Exiled (03:06) 10 Two Kids (03:52) 11 One Good Thing (02:20) |
 | Album: 3 of 9 Title: The Brightness Released: 2007-02-13 Tracks: 11 Duration: 39:34 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Your Fonder Heart (03:31) 2 Of a Friday Night (04:11) 3 Namesake (03:00) 4 Shenandoah (04:03) 5 Changer (02:51) 6 Song of the Magi (03:00) 7 Santa Fe Dream (03:59) 8 Hobos Lullaby (03:09) 9 Old-Fashioned Hat (03:59) 10 Hades & Persephone (03:22) 11 Out of Pawn (04:29) |
| The Brightness : Allmusic album Review : Anaïs Mitchell is a bundle of contradictions. She has the earthiness of Shawn Colvin, the child-like bite of Joanna Newsom, and the urban jumpiness of Ani DiFranco. Her lyrics are sprinkled with rosy similes ("you roll like the rolling waters/you rise like the bright morning stars") while they simultaneously touch on everything from politics ("Hobos Lullaby") to literature ("Namesake," a reference to Mitchells namesake, Anais Nin) to mythology ("Hades & Persephone"). These elements, as disparate as they might seem, come together as nicely as cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, and from the sound of it Mitchell is poised to live up to her new record label, Righteous Babe, on The Brightness. This is a decidedly, ahem, brighter album than her previous effort, opening with a joyful summons ("Come out, come on, come outside"). The Brightness finds Mitchell with a newfound confidence. Not that she skirts pain or sadness on this outing; songs like "Of a Friday Night," a meditation on a departed poet, and "Shenandoah," a ballad about the loss of a friend, dip into isolation and loss. On Hymns for the Exiled, Mitchell might have approached these songs with a helping of self-consciousness and timidity, but on The Brightness theyre approached with a kind of sympathetic energy that lifts them nearly to the level of exaltation. This is, granted, incredibly earnest music, but its hard to hold that against Mitchell given how well she writes, how honest she is, and how far shes come in such a short period of time. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 9 Title: Country EP Released: 2008-09-02 Tracks: 5 Duration: 18:24 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 O My Star! (03:03) 2 MGD (03:18) 3 Come Semptember (03:07) 4 Grace the Day (04:36) 5 When You Fall (04:18) |
 | Album: 5 of 9 Title: Hadestown Released: 2010-03-09 Tracks: 20 Duration: 57:18 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Wedding Song (03:18) 2 Epic, Part One (02:22) 3 Way Down Hadestown (03:32) 4 Songbird (intro) (00:24) 5 Hey, Little Songbird (03:09) 6 Gone, I’m Gone (01:08) 7 When the Chips Are Down (02:14) 8 Wait for Me (03:06) 9 Why We Build the Wall (04:18) 10 Our Lady of the Underground (04:39) 11 Flowers (Eurydice’s Song) (03:33) 12 Nothing Changes (00:51) 13 If It’s True (03:02) 14 Papers (Hades Finds Out) (01:23) 15 How Long? (03:35) 16 Epic, Part Two (02:55) 17 Lover’s Desire (02:05) 18 His Kiss, the Riot (04:02) 19 Doubt Comes In (05:32) 20 I Raise My Cup to Him (02:10) |
| Hadestown : Allmusic album Review : Singer and songwriter Anais Mitchell wrote the first draft of her “folk opera” Hadestown in 2006 with arranger Michael Chorney and director Ben T. Matchstick. After numerous drafts and performances, it is set in stone here. Hadestown retells the Orpheus and Eurydice myth set in an America of hard times economically, socially, and politically. (There is a hint of the great Depression as a setting, but only a hint.) The cast includes Mitchell as Eurydice, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) as Orpheus, Ani DiFranco as Persephone, Greg Brown as Hades, Ben Knox Miller (The Low Anthem) as Hermes, and the Haden Triplets -- Petra, Rachel, and Tanya) as the Fates. The large band includes Rob Burger, Jim Black, Josh Roseman, Nate Wooley, Todd Sickafoose, Marika Hughes, and Tanya Kalmanovich, to name a few. Hadestowns narrative, like the myth, steeps itself in ambiguities more than dead certainties. It moves past dualities of good and evil, life and death, hope and despair, while examining how commonly held beliefs about class reinforce poverty, how our desire for security is complicit in giving away our freedoms, and what real generosity in love actually is. Nowhere is this more evident than a Brown showcase number, “Why We Build the Wall.” (With the cast/chorus unintentionally answering Woody Guthries “This Land Is Your Land” anthem that would make him weep with grief.) There isn’t a weak track here, but high points include “Our Lady of the Underground,” sung by DiFranco; the fierce, yet tender “How Long” with Brown and DiFranco; both parts of Vernon’s “Epic,” Mitchells and Vernon’s “Doubt Comes In,” and “I Raise My Cup to Him,” by Mitchell with DiFranco. Everything here is ambitious, nothing is excessive. The music ranges with classic American folk forms: country gospel, ragtime, blues, and early jazz, to approximations of rock, swing, and avant-garde -- all of it immediate, accessible, and inviting. Vernon’s vocal range -- husky baritone to sweet falsetto -- does justice to Orpheus. Only a singer like this could write a song beautiful enough to rescue his lover from the Underworld. Mitchell doesn’t make herself the star, but is nonetheless. She is convincing as Eurydice; her lyrics are poetic, and her melodies unpretentious, yet sophisticated thanks to Chorney’s arrangements. This 57-minute work goes by in a flash. Artfully conceived, articulated, and produced, Hadestown raises Mitchells creative bar exponentially: there isnt anything else remotely like it. | ||
 | Album: 6 of 9 Title: Young Man in America Released: 2012-02-13 Tracks: 11 Duration: 45:28 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Wilderland (03:08) 2 Young Man in America (05:30) 3 Coming Down (03:06) 4 Dyin Day (03:06) 5 Venus (02:21) 6 He Did (04:05) 7 Annmarie (04:11) 8 Tailor (03:46) 9 Shepherd (05:33) 10 You Are Forgiven (04:13) 11 Ships (06:25) |
 | Album: 7 of 9 Title: Child Ballads Released: 2013-02-11 Tracks: 7 Duration: 39:42 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Willie o Winsbury (Child 100) (05:51) 2 Willies Lady (Child 6) (06:18) 3 Sir Patrick Spens (Child 58) (06:43) 4 Riddles Wisely Expounded (Child 1) (04:42) 5 Clydes Water (Child 216) (05:50) 6 Geordie (Child 209) (03:32) 7 Tam Lin (Child 39) (06:46) |
| Child Ballads : Allmusic album Review : The Child Ballads are a portfolio collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland (plus the ballads American variants) assembled by Francis James Child and originally published as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads in ten volumes between 1882 and 1898, a group of ancient melodies and lyrics that are at the very center of traditional folk music, and versions of these songs have been recorded and reimagined countless times by countless singers and performers. Ever the maverick, Anaïs Mitchell tackles seven of those iconic ballads in this single-disc set, working with her frequent collaborator Jefferson Hamer. Its a sparse, quietly intense album, with the old songs themselves commanding center stage as they always seem to do. Theres a reason these ballads have been around so long, and why intelligent, thoughtful artists like Mitchell are drawn to them. The ballads are mysterious and wild, full of drama, love, murder, intrigue, and more than a fair share of ghosts. Who wouldnt be drawn to that? | ||
 | Album: 8 of 9 Title: Xoa Released: 2014-10-06 Tracks: 15 Duration: 48:50 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Any Way the Wind Blows (02:30) 2 Out of Pawn (04:13) 3 Your Fonder Heart (03:21) 4 Why We Build the Wall (03:35) 5 Now You Know (03:09) 6 If Its True (03:18) 7 Namesake (02:40) 8 Young Man in America (04:01) 9 Two Kids (03:45) 10 The Pursewarden Affair (02:30) 11 His Kiss the Riot (02:32) 12 Come September (02:49) 13 You Are Forgiven (03:22) 14 Our Lady of the Underground (03:18) 15 Cosmic American (03:41) |
 | Album: 9 of 9 Title: Hadestown: The Myth. The Musical. Released: 2017-10-06 Tracks: 21 Duration: 1:17:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Road to Hell (02:49) 2 Livin’ It Up on Top (03:53) 3 All I’ve Ever Known (02:44) 4 Way Down Hadestown (04:56) 5 Epic II (02:46) 6 Chant (05:27) 7 Hey Little Songbird (03:47) 8 When the Chips Are Down (02:35) 9 Gone I’m Gone (01:34) 10 Wait for Me (04:09) 11 Why We Build the Wall (05:05) 12 Our Lady of the Underground (05:30) 13 Way Down Hadestown II (04:19) 14 Chant II (05:06) 15 Epic III (05:17) 16 Word to the Wise (00:55) 17 His Kiss the Riot (03:49) 18 Promises (03:29) 19 Wait for Me II (02:10) 20 Doubt Comes In (03:33) 21 Road to Hell II (03:14) |