ANAIS MITCHELL – HADESTOWN

The guest list for this latest album by Anais Mitchell reads like a veritable who’s who of the alternative folk movement – Ani DiFranco, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Greg Brown. She has chosen a grandiose yet thematically delightful framework of the tale of Orpheus in the Underworld upon which to base her song cycle. These songs are assured, rolling acoustic numbers, her lyrics are romanticized yet subversively real and human. She possesses a voice like one of the golden era war-time entertainers – a creamy alto that seems to effortlessly tramp through the material and woo the audience into her underworld. Though this collection of songs seems less like a solo performance than some kind of weird musical revue; the “theme”, Way Down Hadestown, with its growling lead vocal by Ben Knox, is a jiving jungle stomp, devil horns blazing. Greg Brown’s vocal contribution to Hey Little Songbird is sly, like a dodgy storyteller. Mitchell has a handle on a spacious ballad too – the gorgeous Flowers is proof. Here is a talent in full bloom – it all gets under your skin somehow, and stays there for days.

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