Spotlight On: ANAIS MITCHELL

ABOUT THIS WEEK’S SHERO IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

A decade between albums sounds like a long time, but not when you have been at the helm of what became an eight time Tony Award winning Broadway musical. The musical I speak of is Hadestown, and is the brainchild of singer, songwriter, playwright, and now author Anaïs Mitchell, who first released the album that would evolve into Hadestown, the musical, in 2010; it was her fourth album since 2002, and her second on SHERO Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records. So success started as a slow and steady burn for Anaïs, who also just put out her first book, Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown, in 2020. That same year, she was named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People. And her 2020 debut album with Bonny Light Horseman, a trio she is in with Josh Kaufman and Eric Johnson of Fruit Bats, is up for a GRAMMY this year. So, yeah, Anaïs has been busy. Thankfully, pandemic times and its slower pace afforded her the time and space to get back to her own songwriting. The result is a gorgeous new self-titled collection, and we celebrate its release and the incredibly gifted artist that is Anaïs Mitchell, this week’s SHERO in the Spotlight. 

Our playlist includes new music from Melissa Leveaux, Ibibio Sound Machine, and Lucius. Plus, we celebrate the beginning of Black History Month with Aretha Franklin’s powerful cover of Nina Simone’s “Young, Gifted & Black.” 

SHERO BIRTHDAYS: We celebrate the SHERO birthdays of Sam Phillips on 1/28, and Laura Marling on 2/1. 

This week’s Radio SHERO: Cindy Howes of WUNC Music joins us as our Radio SHERO this week, spinning the track “How Bad I Wanna Live” from Maya De Vitry’s new album. As Cindy puts it, it’s a “barn burner” of a song that tells the story of Maya’s near-death experience being caught in a storm on a treacherous hiking trail.