One of the standout performers at AmericanaFest in Nashville last September was Michaela Anne and AUK were fortunate enough to catch her on two separate occasions – once at the North Carolina Day Party and then again at the JP Harris sponsored event ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’. Michaela Anne was showcasing songs from her third and latest album for Yep Roc, ‘Desert Dove’, which would comfortably make its way into Americana fans’ top 50 albums of 2019.
After 10 years in New York, Anne moved to Nashville. Not long after, she released her proper debut, ‘Brights Lights and the Fame’, more of an old-school country-leaning record inspired by the types of honky-tonk bar gigs she used to perform. For ‘Desert Dove’ Anne travelled to San Clemente in California in order to allow herself to focus exclusively on her music. The result is a first-class album occupying a space between Americana, pop and indie country, which includes the likes of the supremely catchy ‘Child of the Wind’, a song which movingly described the itinerant lifestyle she led as the daughter of a navy submarine captain and continues to lead as a jobbing musician, the melodious and uptempo ‘I’m Not the Fire’ (which has a nice twist on the “there’s no smoke without fire” line), while ‘If I Wanted Your Opinion’ is a terrific put down of mansplaining.
The album was sympathetically co-produced by Sam Outlaw and Kelly Winrich, both of whom contribute rhythm guitar on the record, along with support from Brian Whelan on guitar, fiddler Kristin Weber – who also provides excellent harmony vocals – and Mark Stepro and Daniel Bailey on drums.
Now Michaela Anne will be heading to Europe for the first time as a headline performer after a number of successful support slots. As part of her brief tour of the UK, Anne will be performing as part of the UK Americana Association Showcase on January 29 (the night before the association’s awards night), which she follows up with two shows in Nottingham and Bristol, before dates in Sweden and Norway. We can only hope she plans on a longer tour of the UK the next time she’s over this way.
Michaela Anne 2020 UK tour dates:
JAN 29 – Oslo, London (AmericanFest)
FEB 3 – The Bodega Social Club, Nottingham
FEB 4 – The Louisiana, Bristol
