Anaïs Mitchell

Biography

Anaïs Mitchell (; born March 26, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and playwright. She has released eight studio albums throughout her career, including Hadestown×Hadestown9 March 2010 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 20 tracks1Wedding Song3:182Epic, Part One2:223Way Down Hadestown3:324Songbird (intro)0:245Hey, Little Songbird3:096Gone, I’m Gone1:087When the Chips Are Down2:148Wait for Me3:069Why We Build the Wall4:1810Our Lady of the Underground4:3911Flowers (Eurydice’s Song)3:3312Nothing Changes0:5113If It’s True3:0214Papers (Hades Finds Out)1:2315How Long?3:3516Epic, Part Two2:5517Lover’s Desire2:0518His Kiss, the Riot4:0219Doubt Comes In5:3220I Raise My Cup to Him2:10 (2010), Young Man in America×Young Man in America13 February 2012 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Wilderland3:082Young Man in America5:313Coming Down3:064Dyin’ Day3:075Venus2:216He Did4:057Annmarie4:118Tailor3:469Shepherd5:3310You Are Forgiven4:1411Ships6:25 (2012), Child Ballads (2013), and Anaïs Mitchell (2022).
With theatre director Rachel Chavkin, Mitchell developed Hadestown into a stage musical. It premiered off-Broadway in 2016, and made its Broadway debut three years later to critical acclaim. Hadestown won eight awards at the 73rd Annual Tony Awards, including Best Musical. For her work, Mitchell won the Tony Award for Best Original Score and was nominated for Best Book of a Musical. She additionally won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. In 2020, Mitchell published her first book, Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown, and was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Mitchell is a member of the band Bonny Light Horseman, whose self-titled debut was released in 2020. The band's second album, Golden Rolling Holy, was released in 2022, followed by Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free in 2024.

Early life

Mitchell's father, a novelist and college professor, named her after author Anaïs Nin. She grew up on Treleven farm in Addison County, Vermont and graduated from Mount Abraham Union High School. She was raised Quaker. Her mother was Deputy Secretary of Vermont's Agency of Human Services. After traveling to the Middle East, Europe and Latin America as a child, she attended Middlebury College, where she majored in political science and graduated in 2004.

Career

She began writing her first songs at the age of 17, around 1998. Just five years later Mitchell won the New Folk award in 2003, when she was 22, at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Her album Hymns for the Exiled×Hymns for the Exiled21 September 2004 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Before the Eyes of Storytelling Girls3:06219842:573Cosmic American3:414The Belly and the Beast4:515Orion4:156Mockingbird3:147I Wear Your Dress3:048Quecreek Flood4:169A Hymn for the Exiled3:0610Two Kids3:5211One Good Thing2:21 was released on Chicago's Waterbug Records label in 2004. This recording attracted the attention of singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, who signed her to the Righteous Babe Records label.
In 2006, Mitchell debuted a draft of her "folk opera" Hadestown, which she wrote in collaboration with arranger Michael Chorney and director Ben T. Matchstick. A revised version of Hadestown was staged in 2007. Her third album, The Brightness×The Brightness13 February 2007 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Your Fonder Heart3:312Of a Friday Night4:113Namesake3:004Shenandoah4:035Changer2:516Song of the Magi3:007Santa Fe Dream3:598Hobo's Lullaby3:099Old-Fashioned Hat3:5910Hades & Persephone3:2211Out of Pawn4:29, was released that same year on Righteous Babe Records.
Her album Hadestown×Hadestown9 March 2010 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 20 tracks1Wedding Song3:182Epic, Part One2:223Way Down Hadestown3:324Songbird (intro)0:245Hey, Little Songbird3:096Gone, I’m Gone1:087When the Chips Are Down2:148Wait for Me3:069Why We Build the Wall4:1810Our Lady of the Underground4:3911Flowers (Eurydice’s Song)3:3312Nothing Changes0:5113If It’s True3:0214Papers (Hades Finds Out)1:2315How Long?3:3516Epic, Part Two2:5517Lover’s Desire2:0518His Kiss, the Riot4:0219Doubt Comes In5:3220I Raise My Cup to Him2:10, produced by Todd Sickafoose, was released in spring 2010 to favorable reviews. Described as "the story of Orpheus and Eurydice set in post-apocalyptic Depression-era America, the album includes guest appearances by Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Ben Knox Miller of The Low Anthem, and The Haden Triplets (Petra, Rachel, and Tanya Haden).
Mitchell continued quietly working on a stage version of Hadestown while also writing and recording new material. In early 2012, she released Young Man in America on Wilderland Records. Mitchell opened the North American leg of Bon Iver's autumn 2012 tour, which included two sold-out shows at Radio City Music Hall. The album was largely praised by critics as "genre-defying" and her "second consecutive masterpiece."
In late 2012, Mitchell completed recording seven songs from the collection of Child Ballads, compiled by Francis James Child, with fellow musician Jefferson Hamer. The album, produced by Gary Paczosa, was released in February 2013, winning a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Traditional Song. This was followed in 2014 by xoa, for which Mitchell re-recorded a number of her older songs using only guitar and vocals. This stripped back album included some songs from Hadestown which were recorded for the first time in Mitchell's own voice, as well as three brand new songs.
In summer 2016, the newly expanded theatrical version of Hadestown opened at New York Theatre Workshop with Vogue magazine predicting that "Hadestown will be your next musical theatre obsession". The following year, it received its Canadian premiere at The Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, and in April 2018, London's National Theatre announced that it would present a three-month run during the winter ahead of the show's Broadway transfer. Hadestown opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre on April 17, 2019.
In 2019, Mitchell was appearing as part of a three-piece "supergroup" called Bonny Light Horseman, consisting of herself, Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats and guitarist Josh Kaufman. The group's self-titled debut album was released on January 24, 2020.
In June 2021, American supergroup Big Red Machine announced their second studio album, How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last?, which features Mitchell's guest vocals in three of its tracks: "Latter Days×Latter Days29 June 2021 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Latter Days3:38", "Phoenix", and "New Auburn".

Personal life

While at Middlebury College, Mitchell met Noah Hahn, whom she married in 2006. They have two daughters, Ramona and Rosetta.

Reception

Mitchell has received favorable reviews on her musical style, sound and performance. An article in Acoustic Guitar magazine calls Mitchell "fearlessly emotive" and compares her to Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Gillian Welch. The UK's Independent newspaper called her "the most engaging, and in some ways, most original artist currently working in the field of new American folk music" The New York Times noted that "Ms Mitchell's songs address contemporary angst with uncanny vision" and called her "a formidable songwriting talent".

Audiobooks

Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown (October 6, 2020; Penguin Audio)