Anna Tivel makes music that hits you hard – soft and quiet it may often be but the ideas are large, the emotions are bare, sometimes brutally so even within the tightly constrained words and the breathless vocal that Anna Tivel rings to her music. Anna Tivel is what we call a big talent.
In a song packed with words ‘American Novella‘ weaves around weighty subjects- death and the fear of death both for the person lying in the hospital bed and amongst those gathered around it, who incidentally are still leaving unsaid those things they always wish they had said. There’s a lesson for us all. And there’s fear of briging life into the world – how can one cope? Is one enough to take this dramatic and irrevocable step. And there’s a dream that at some point it will be possible to achieve an inner contentment, that zen like peace we think is possible but perhaps find rather elusive.
‘American Novella‘ was recorded at the same time as Anna Tivel’s latest album ‘Outsiders‘, and features Anna Tivel – guitar, vocals, Ben Lester – pedal steel, Courtney Hartman – electric guitar, Jeremy Boettcher – bass, Shane Leonard – drums, synth, John Dehaven – trumpet. That it didn’t make the album tells you how strong the album is.
Anna Tivel is in Eire next week, with a series of live dates:
April 26 – Whelan’s – Dublin
April 27 – De Barra’s – Clonakilty
April 30 – Roisin Dubh – Galway
