Archive for the ‘Anais Mitchell’ Category

Anaïs Mitchel – “Hadestown” (Righteous Babe Records, March 9)

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

I usually don’t jump at writing about press releases (in fact I get so few since I unsubscribed to just about every email list) but there are a few people that I still listen to. So when I read about something new from Anaïs Mitchell by way of Thirty Tigers it was news to rejoice to. The new record Hadestown is a recording of her adaptation of the greek myth Orpheus and Eurydice. I’ve heard a song or two in person and they are special and unique in the world of music. How can they not be? The songs that make up her folk opera, which is based on a story thousands of years old, use the folk idium to loosely tell a story that bends and twists in ways that are unique and challenging.

As a result on the song “Way Down” you get Tom Waitsesque vocals, muted trumpet, an angelic choir and Anaïs’ own unique vocal delivery.

Way Down

P.S. Anaïs Mitchell will join about a hundred other folk artists this February 17-21 in Memphis, TN for the annual folk pilgrimage known as Folk Alliance.

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Songs:Illinois House Concert (w/Rachel Ries, Anais Mitchell and Hayward Williams) (plus Joe Pug On MOKB live)

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

Just a quick note to say the semi-bi-annual quarterly Songs:Illinois house concert is this Sunday night somewhere on the outskirts of Chicago. The lineup is a Guaranteed good time. I can say that because we’ve had the honor of having Rachel Ries and Anais Mitchell play for us a year or so ago. It was really a magical night and I’m expecting the same or better since they are touring behind a joint ep they issued on Righteous Babe called simply the country ep.

As of 5 minutes ago I’ve also added Hayward Williams as the opener. I’ve tried to get him to play before but never could put it together. This time the stars aligned so he’s going to open the show up. Hayward’s debut record, Another Sailors Dream, was produced by the great Peter Mulvey. Critics have called that record “fantastic”, “a masterpiece” and “the first major score for 2007″.

Hit me up here (cbonnell @ gmail.com) for an invite and directions.

Problems With Hemingway

Rachel Ries and Anais Mitchell

Waiting to Fall

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Speaking of house concerts: one of our most memorable (and shortest) was by singer songwriter Joe Pug. At the time he was a relatively unknown commodity so we gave him a shot at a doing a couple songs opening for Michael Fracasso. Now he’s practically a made man and I wish he would have just played and played.

My Old Kentucky Blog has a new video series called Laundro Matinee and this week he’s featured on it (along with a noisy cricket). Here’s two unreleased songs plus a video of Joe doing his signature song “Hymn 101″ from his new EP.

Not So Sure

Bury Me Far From My Uniform


Joe Pug – Hymn 101 from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

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Rachel Ries and Anais Mitchell come together for “the country e.p.”

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Rachel Ries is an F.O.B. (friend of blog). She’s attained that status not by hiring one of the hundreds of PR folks that barrage my inbox daily or by being signed to one of the top indie labels. She’s done it quite simply by releasing some of the best music over the past 4 years that I’ve written about on S:I.

Her newest project is a split e.p. with friend (and S:I favorite) Anais Mitchell called the country e.p.. The e.p. has two songs written by each woman and then a cover of their friend Louis Ledford’s song . On each song they create lovely harmonies together, something they’ve been perfecting on tour with each other for the last few years. If you like either of these two artists than this e.p. is an essential buy. You can get it now from Anais’ label Righteous Babe here (and you can hear one more song streaming here).

When You Fall

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