Anaïs Mitchell is first and foremost a storyteller. As a Vermont based singer-songwriter, Mitchell recorded for Ani Difranco's Righteous Babe Records for several years before starting her own Wilderland label in 2012. Among her recorded works are five full length albums, including 2010's sensationally reviewed Hadestown-- a folk opera based on the Orpheus myth-- and 2012's Young Man in America, which was described by the UK's Independent as 'an epic tale of American becoming.'
If there's a common thread in Mitchell's work-- from her earliest acoustic records, to the Hadestown opera, to this new chapter-- it's that she's as interested in the world around her as the one inside her. She has a way of tackling big themes with the same emotional intimacy most artists use to describe their inner lives. "That's why," as one journalist put it, "even in her most intimate moments, she never sounds like a confessional songwriter."
Opening for Anais are: Bridget Kearney and Benjamin Lazar Davis. The Brooklyn-based Kearney and Davis are longtime collaborators. Kearney was a member of Davis's sprawling avant-pop group, Cuddle Magic (she also plays bass in the up-tempo, stripped-down Lake Street Dive), and her knack for wordplay and for unexpected hooks has long been evident. Davis, on the other hand, has honed a weirder, texture-obsessed sensibility.
