Anaïs Mitchell (born March 26, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and playwright.
Mitchell released her first studio album in 2002, and has released six more since. Her songs are known for their folksy productions, Americana themes and visuals, and tender vocals. She's also known for Hadestown, a small-scale theatrical production-turned Concept Album (her fourth album release)-turned full-blown Broadway production, which she developed alongside Rachel Chavkin and for which she has won both a Grammy and multiple Tonys.
Mitchell is also part of the supergroup Bonny Light Horseman (comprised of her, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman) and has contributed vocals to fellow supergroup Big Red Machine's second album, How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?
Discography
Extended Plays
- Country E.P. (with Rachel Ries) (2008)
Albums
- The Song They Sang... When Rome Fell (2002)
- Hymns for the Exiled (2004)
- The Brightness (2007)
- Hadestown (2010)
- Hadestown: The Myth. The Musical. (2017 New York Theater Workshop Live Recording)
- Hadestown (2019 Original Broadway Cast Recording)
- Young Man in America (2012)
- Child Ballads (with Jefferson Hamer) (2013)
- xoa (2014)
- Anaïs Mitchell (2022)
Tropes:
- Book Ends: The title track of Young Man in America. The lyrics begin with the young man's birth, and end with him "climbing in the bed [his mother made him] in".
- Born During a Storm: Played for Drama in "Shepherd", where a farmer and his wife are faced with the choice of protecting the harvest from the coming storm or taking her to the hospital. They choose the former, but the wife dies in childbirth.
- Changing Yourself for Love: The subject of "Tailor" is a woman who has tailored herself to fit her lover's expectations and has an identity crisis when he leaves her.
- Cover Album: Mitchell covers some of the Child Ballads
, traditional folk songs from the United Kingdom, in the album of the same name, which is solely comprised of those covers. - Death by Childbirth: The wife in "Shepherd" dies while giving birth to her child, who also does not survive.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The protagonist of "Your Fonder Heart" is unsure whether the object of her affections loves her back, but will respectfully take them in any way they'll have her.Come out, come inspired
You will not come to harm
If I cannot take you for a liar or a lover
I'll take you for my brother-in-arms - Named After Somebody Famous: Mitchell was named for French-Cuban-American writer Anaïs Nin.
- One-Woman Song: "Annmarie" has the singer plead with the titular woman.
- Protest Song: "Song of the Magi". Mitchell sings of a baby being born in Bethlehem, to the joy of his parents... except the lyrics and imagery ("West Bank town", "your home is a checkpoint now") alludes to the modern, war-torn state of the region. The imagery used at the end (lions laying with lambs) is a common call for peace and the end of conflict.
- Red/Green Contrast: Red and green traffic lights are used to evoke a busy city in "Your Fonder Heart".Come out, the streets are breathing
Heaving green to red to green
Come with your nicotine and wine and tambourine
Keeping time - Re-release the Song:
- The song "Hades & Persephone" from The Brightness became a duet between the titular characters in Hadestown and its theatrical adaptation.
- Many of the songs on xoa are rerecordings of songs from older albums.
- Seasonal Baggage: "Seasonal motif" in "Come September", where she reminisces about a burned-out summer fling as autumn comes.
- Self-Titled Album: Mitchell's 2022 album is titled Anaïs Mitchell.
