About the Artist
Listening to singer/songwriter Anais Mitchell perform her meticulously written songs, fervently singing them in a distinctive, almost childlike voice, youd think it was her life mission to rouse the hearts and minds of her listeners with an acoustic guitar. But Mitchell wasnt always committed to the idea. "I used to tell people I wanted to be a journalist. There is a lonely egotism and self-composure to journalists. Not unlike artists, theyre always traveling, always writing, loving their loneliness, feeling somehow that they have their finger on the pulse--worshipping the truth and trying to render it legible."
Despite her journalistic leanings, Mitchell started writing songs at age 17 and eventually started performing them live during her school days, which were punctuated by a remarkable amount of traveling. In a short period of time, Ana?ˉs made several trips to the Middle East, and also spent time in Europe and Latin America, studying languages and world politics. This stunning, troubadour-like experience seeped into her music, and she became adept at fusing her passion for literature and journalism in her lyrics.
With a clutch of quiet, ambitious songs in her arsenal, Mitchell recorded her now out-of-print debut, The Song They Sang When Rome Fell (2002), in a single afternoon in Austin, Texas. It was in Texas that Ana?ˉs discovered the Kerrville Folk Festival, which honored her with the prestigious New Folk Award in 2003. Soon thereafter, with the help of Michael Chorney and Chicago-based Waterbug Records, Ana?ˉs released her second album, Hymns For The Exiled, in 2004. The stirring collection of guitar and voice cemented Mitchells status as a folksinger to watch, and the record eventually reached the ears of Ani DiFranco, a songwriter whose fusion of personal and political themes was a formative influence on a teenaged Mitchell. After seeing a few of Ana?ˉs captivating concerts, DiFranco signed the artist to her label, Righteous Babe Records.
"If you knew what Ani DiFranco meant to me as a young woman and a young songwriter...well, I was simultaneously elated and in total disbelief," Mitchell told a Vermont reporter after joining the RBRrrmy. "It seemed too good to be true."
The same can be said about Mitchells Righteous Babe debut, The Brightness. During the recording process, Ana?ˉs lived above the studio, which was built into an old Vermont gristmill. She could wake up, shake the sleep out of her eyes and record tracks in her pajamas, resulting in a decidedly intimate listening experience. Spilling over with worldly metaphors, intense emotions and unshakeable reverence to the art of song, The Brightness shimmers with creative spark.
Product Description
From her birthplace on a Vermont sheep farm to Beirut caf??s, Cairo apartments and Austin recording studios, Ana?ˉs (ah-NAY-iss) Mitchell has been around. Therefore, its no surprise that The Brightness, Mitchells Righteous Babe debut, is infused with the restless, worldly perspective of a real troubadour.
With The Brightness, Mitchell gives us a glimpse into the raw talent and infectious energy of todays underground folkies, not to mention a handful of the places shes been. Over the course of 11 songs, listeners are transported to Bethlehem and the Virginia countryside; they bathe in New Mexico moonlight and hear the world whizzing by from the inside of a hobos
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