EVENTS CALENDAR

Roll over dates on the calendar above to show event details.

HOT GIG TICKETS

ANAIS MITCHELL & ERIN MCKEOWN

Sat 23rd Jan 2010

The Luminaire presents
a Righteous Babe double-bill with
ANAIS MITCHELL & ERIN MCKEOWN

7.30 doors

8.20 Erin McKeown

9.30 Anais Mitchell

£8 at WeGotTickets and TicketWeb
£10 door

We're very, very pleased to welcome Anais Mitchell back to The Luminiare, after she delivered one of our favourite shows here in January 2009.

"Fearlessly emotive, a songwriter of startling clarity and depth. Like Dylan, Cohen, and Welch, Mitchell weaves her stories into an effortlessly beautiful and cohesive tapestry with the skill of an artisan's carpenter, showing no seams." (Acoustic Guitar)

At a time when the music industry is playing the role of the slickest of defense attorneys, using flash and dazzle campaigns to distract us from the fact that their clients are terrible, Mitchell is an artist who grew up on a sheep farm. She makes small-sounding, big-thinking folk albums that play like a front-porch serenade. If she feels in a bit of a time warp, you can't blame her.

"The earthiness of Shawn Colvin, the child-like bite of Joanna Newsom, and the urban jumpiness of Ani DiFranco..." (All Music Guide)

Listening to this 25-year-old singer/songwriter perform her meticulously written songs, fervently singing them in a distinctive, almost childlike voice, you'd think it was her life mission to rouse the hearts and minds of her listeners with an acoustic guitar. But Mitchell wasn't 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, they're always traveling, always writing, loving their loneliness, feeling somehow that they have their finger on the pulse – worshiping the truth and trying to render it legible."

"In Mitchell's universe, there is no light between the personal and the political, the venerable and the radical... her canary soprano and puckish melodies can obscure the bravery of her vision. (Boston Globe)

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, Anaïs 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.

"Her lyrics are sprinkled with rosy similes while they simultaneously touch on everything from politics to literature to mythology. These elements, as disparate as they might seem, come together as nicely as cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg." (All Music Guide)

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. It was also in Texas where Anaïs 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, Anaïs released her second album, Hymns For The Exiled, in 2004. The stirring collection of guitar and voice cemented Mitchell's 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 Anaïs' captivating concerts, DiFranco signed the artist to her label, Righteous Babe Records.

Spilling over with worldly metaphors, intense emotions and unshakable reverence to the art of song, Mitchell's new album, 'The Brightness', shimmers with creative spark.

Between shows she is currently working on plans to stage her original folk-opera, Hadestown, based on the myth of Hades and Eurydice, as she continues to tour and do what she does best: pluck heartstrings and sing.

She brilliantly intertwines the mundane and the profound, singing with the same intimacy about a carefree night on the town and wandering the warring towns of Israel. Her vivid snapshots of sweetly ordinary moments spin suddenly outward to bemoan the eternal woes of poverty and militarism. Evoking weary hobos, wayward trains, and the mythic power of ancient folk songs, she views the past with wistful longing." (Boston Globe)

Joining Anais this evening is Erin McKeown.

"McKeown continues to distinguish herself with clever lyrics and instrumentation… Hundreds of Lions truly shines …"– Paste Magazine, November 2009

"Her fluid vocals remain the centerpiece of the album, while her lyrics reveal the heart of a poet and the wisdom of a soul wise beyond her years. " - All Music Guide

"The plucked strings and woodwinds of "To A Hammer" gets things started and transitions into the piano driven marvel of "Santa Cruz," confirming that McKeown is back and better than ever." - Chicago Free Press

"McKeown has a highly inviting alto and it's showcased splendidly on this thrillingly diverse collection of avant-folk." – Metromix

"…an album that stands proudly beside any that she's made and demonstrates most clearly why she's a singer/songwriter of vast skill and seemingly endless imagination." - Stereo Subversion

"While she sounds like a happy Fiona Apple on the swaying, bouncy "The Foxes," McKeown is really at her finest on the moodier, mellower songs on 'Hundreds of Lions'." - Washington Post Express Night Out

"This is her smartest, slyest set yet, with shapelier melodies, wittier wordplay, and more-adventurous arrangements."

- The Boston Phoenix

Track this Anais Mitchell show at The Luminaire on Songkick

RSS