Anais Mitchell is one of my favourite folk singers, and Hadestown one of my most loved albums in any genre, so the chance to finally see her, in an intimate venue, excited me. Her seven month old daughter Ramona watched the start of Ned Roberts' hushed and beautiful support set, after which Anais opened with Willie Of Winsbury. This was recently voted best traditional track at the 2014 BBC Folk Awards, and is taken from her Child Ballads collaboration with Jefferson Hamer of traditional English and Scottish songs. This was a solo and completely acoustic performance, the stage bare except for a microphone and guitar, something of a contrast after large scale fervour of The National the evening before.
One of the joys of Anais' last solo album, Young Man in America, is the exquisite instrumentation, and I missed the harmonies provided by backing vocalists in the studio. The accompaniment was sparse, and whilst this provided a directness, there were losses too. Yet, to my surprise, the most effective performances were from her folk opera Hadestown, which has an ensemble cast including Justin Venon and Ani di Franco. Why We Build The Wall inspired an audience sing along, which filled the gaps in the dialogue. The lyrics to this song are powerful in an age of intolerance and over-enforcement of borders, whilst as in depression era America, the poor have suffered most from the 2007 banking crisis. Anais follows in Pete Seeger's tradition of liberal activist folk singers, and her songs often deal with the important issues of our time. 1984, from Hymns for the Exiled, was inspired by the Patriot Act, but feels even more topical and necessary today. Towards the end, she announced that all the proceeds from this tour were going to charity, to promote music in prisons and hospitals.
Above all, Anais is a storyteller. She established a wonderfully warm and humorous rapport with the audience, as comfortable retelling the previous day's sightseeing with her family as with explaining mythology. She has described her parents as hippies, who hitch-hiked to San Francisco for the summer of love and then went back to the land on a farm in rural Vermont. She is not from a family of musicians, but her father is a novelist and English scholar, and it is as a song writer that Anais shows particular genius. Shepherd from Young Man in America is based on one of his short stories, and children and parenthood are recurring themes on this album. Anais talked about the way her songs can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, now she has a child of her own.
The hour long set ranged widely through her back catalogue, and she observed that her most frequently requested songs are melancholic, and older. The early works seemed more minimal, and have fewer echoes of country music. The audience was completely silent throughout, in rapt concentration. Her voice is nasal and charismatic: a gloriously expressive, malleable instrument. A highlight was Wedding Song, as its positivity enthused the crowd, yet Anais had an open, relaxed personality throughout. Whereas St Vincent has developed a sophisticated alter ego, Anais sings with total directness from the heart, and in this acoustic setting, little stood in the way of her personality. She's planning to release an acoustic album this summer, but is also engaged in the re-working of Hadestown for an opera production (from which she performed a new song last night). Much though I appreciated the tenderness of this show, it's the richness of a full scale presentation I'm excited about next time I see Anais.
Set List
- Willie of Winsbury
- Wedding Song
- Why We Build the Wall
- Now You Know
- Ships
- Young Man in America
- Cosmic American
- Out of Pawn
- 1984
- Namesake
- Our Lady of the Underground
- Lonie (new song from Hadestown remix)
- Venus
- I Raise My Cup To Him
Ned Roberts
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