The Davis Live Music Collective would like to thank Anaïs Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer, Frank Fairfield, and Tom Conlon for putting on a terrific show. Everyone was treated to an experience as unique as it was beautiful – including the performers.
Thanks as always go to our amazing crew of volunteers who make it all possible, and to the staff of the Veterans’ Memorial Theatre.
Anaïs Mitchell began writing and performing songs at the age of seventeen. She recorded her debut album The Song They Sang When Rome Fell on a single afternoon in 2002, followed by Hymns for the Exiled which attracted the attention of Ani DiFranco who signed Mitchell to her Righteous Babe Records.
In 2006 she wrote the folk opera Hadestown “the story of Orpheus and Eurydice set in post-apocalyptic Depression-era America.” It was staged to critical acclaim in London in 2007, and a 2010 recording of Hadestown includes appearances by Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), and Ben Knox Miller (The Low Anthem).
Justin Vernon’s connection to the project has helped propel Mitchell along her current trajectory. In March 2012, Bon Iver performed Mitchell’s ‘Coming Down’ from her widely acclaimed Young Man in America, released just a month earlier. Mitchell then opened the North American leg of Bon Iver’s Autumn 2012 tour, which included two sold-out shows at Radio City Music Hall. Young Man in America continues earning praise on year-end lists, marking Anaïs as a genuine and rising talent in American music.
Jefferson Hamer began his career with Colorado roots rockers Great American Taxi. The two songwriters discovered their shared love of Celtic and British Isles ballads, and made a plan to arrange and record some of their favorites together. But what began as a whimsical side project evolved into a serious collaborative endeavor.
The resulting album Child Ballads took shape around a nineteenth century anthology The English and Scottish Popular Ballads collected by Sir Francis James Child – the album’s namesake. It was recorded in Nashville by legendary producer Gary Paczosa (Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton). Their versions, driven by two-guitar arrangements and close harmonies that call to mind Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris, have been carefully re-imagined to reflect an American sensibility as well as a deep respect for the tradition.
“We kept thinking back to those records we loved so much,†says Mitchell, “and finally decided that what the songs wanted was to be presented as simply as possible; melody, harmony, acoustic instruments, live taping—the stories really out front.â€
The duo joins the company of artists like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan who performed these songs decades ago, and more recent indie rock outfits like the Decemberists and the Fleet Foxes who have found inspiration in traditional songs from across the Atlantic.
If there’s a common thread in Mitchell’s work, from her earliest ballads 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.†It doesn’t matter whether the stories she tells are her own or someone else’s. “The emotions are my own,†says Mitchell.
“The language, and the music, is both familiar and exotic at the same timeâ€
She’ll be taking a break from her busy tour schedule with acts like Richard Thompson, Josh Ritter and MacArthur Award winner Chris Thile and his band The Punch Brothers to headline her own tour, including this stop in Davis. For a sneak peak, have a look at her NPR Tiny Desk Concert, and go to her website for more information.
Frank Fairfield is a young man making a name for himself in his own right. He is an old time folk musician and unbelievable word of mouth sensation who channels the spirit of another era in his spellbinding live shows.
Originally from Fresno, Frank sings and alternates between banjo, fiddle and guitar, performing a different set of traditional songs and originals each night, drawing on his encyclopaedic knowledge of the American folk canon. He has released two albums to rave reviews, the first a collection of traditional songs on 2009′s eponymous album, followed by Out On The Open West in 2010. Frank has found fans in the likes of Ry Cooder, CW Stoneking, Charlie Parr and Fleet Foxes handpicked him to open for them on their 2008 US tour. DLMC is proud to welcome an original talent like Frank Fairfield to town, and we hope you’ll join us in doing so.
And Tom Conlon will begin the evening with his beautiful songs and stories.
What the Press is Saying About Frank Fairfield
“A young Californian who sings and plays as someone who’s crawled out of the Virginia mountains carrying familiar songs that in his hands sound forgotten: broken lines, a dissonant drone, the fiddle or the banjo all percussion, every rising moment louder than the one before it.†– Greil Marcus
“One of America’s best conduits of antiquity†– Pitchfork
 What the Press is Saying About Mitchell’s Work…
“Terrific….Mitchell is a skilled storyteller..and her delivery gives an emotional complexity that welcomes and even demands repeated listens.†PITCHFORK
“…ageless… She is one of the most talented singer-songwriters…” NO DEPRESSION
“Currently a well-kept secret, Mitchell is writing material that stands comparison with the great singer-songwriters of the past few decades† Daily Telegraph
Praise for Young Man in America (Wilderland Records, 2012)
- MOJO – Number 1 Folk Album 2012
- UNCUT – Number 7, Best Americana Albums 2012
- BBC RADIO 2 FOLK AWARDS – Best Original Song 2012 Nomination
- NPR – Top 10, Folk & Americana Albums 2012
- AMERICAN SONGWRITER – Number 14, Best Songs 2012
- EXCLAIM! CANADA – Number 7, Best Folk Albums 2012
“A remarkable, genre-defying album†Uncut
“…a true American original†Q Magazine
“The title track crams an entire Great American Novel into just five-and-a-half minutes…introducing Mitchell as folk’s most sophisticated storyteller†American Songwriter, Best Songs of 2012
“…easily one of the most heartbreaking, insightful, impassioned, complex and delightful releases of the year….solidifies the gifted wordsmith’s upcoming place among today’s most celebrated folk heavyweights†Exclaim! Canada
Praise for Hadestown (Righteous Babe Records, 2010)
- THE OBSERVER – Number 1 Album of 2010
- SUNDAY TIMES – Number 9 in Top 100 Albums 2010
- THE GUARDIAN – Number 17 in Best of 2010 list
“Nothing short of incredible†NME
“Hadestown has made Mitchell an Americana princess†Uncut
“Sensationally good and endlessly absorbing…an extraordinary album.†Sunday Times
“An unmitigated triumph†The Independent
