Engaging and original musician, Anais Mitchell, at the me and thee

Press release by Linda Werbner

On Friday, November 6, one of the reigning queens of indie folk music, Anais Mitchell, graces the stage of the me & thee with her breathtaking mix of vocals and brilliant and complex storytelling. Praised by the UK’s Independent as “The most engaging and in some ways, most original artist currently working in the field of new American ‘folk’ music,” this young Vermont-based singer-songwriter has built an impressive discography to date, including a folk-rock opera, Hadestown. The Marblehead audience is in for a treat when Tony Award winning actor and one of the stars of HBO’s “The Newsroom”, John Gallagher Jr. brings his own original repertoire as the show opener for Mitchell. The me&thee is located at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead at 28 Mugford Street in Marblehead.

Anais Mitchell is a generous performer who frequently collaborates and her discs have included guest appearances by fellow indie music royalty as Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver on Hadestown, singer-songwriter Rachel Ries on 2008’s Country/E.P, and her friend and fellow songwriter and guitarist Jefferson Hamer on Child Ballads. Anais began writing songs at 17 and at the tender age 22, won the New Folk award at the Kerrville Folk Festival, which in the music world is sort of like winning an Oscar at the Academy Awards or a gold medal at the Olympics. Mitchell’s Kerrville victory and her disc Hymns for the Exiled (2004) attracted the attention of singer/songwriter alt/folk rock goddess Ani DiFranco, who quickly signed her to her own Righteous Babe Records label.

Mitchell keeps releasing exceptional albums including what is widely considered her magnum opus, the folk-jazz-blues opera Hadestown, which dumped doomed lovers Orpheus and Eurydice in dusty, post-apocalyptic Depression-era America. The disc was released in 2010 and features a 22-person cast and toured New England stages before Mitchell returned to the studio to edit and rework the songs. Stereo Subversion’s Jonathan Sanders called Hadestown “a lasting example of where folk music can go when the right musicians take hold of history.” This riveting piece of music has just been chosen to be part of the New York Theatre Workshop’s current season.

In 2012, Mitchell formed her own label, Wilderland Records and put out Young Man in America, another concept album which was “influenced by the recession” that the country was stuck in at the time and the gnawing feeling of uncertainty and restlessness of one who is no longer being parented but not yet a parent. Young Man was heralded as another musical breaththrough for Mitchell . Continuing her trajectory of musical mastership, Mitchellreleased a seven-song collection, 2013’s Child Ballads with Jefferson Hamer. Critics and listeners noted the stunning harmonies and undeniable musical chemistry between the two. The opening song, “Willie of Winsbury,” a stirring ballad of sex, money and death from 18th Century England, was awarded the 2014 BBC Folk Award for Best Traditional Song. On her most recent release, 2014’s xoa, Mitchell flies solo on this stripped-down collection of fifteen tracks, some of which were rerecorded tunes from Hadestown and older, previously unrecorded songs. In interviews, Mitchell has likened the album to a musical valentine to her listeners, a way of saying “dear audience, thank you for everything.”

John Howard Gallagher, Jr. is opening the show on November 6. He is the actor and musician known for originating the role of Moritz Stiefel in Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s rock musical “Spring Awakening,” which earned him a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. He also played Johnny in Green Day’s Broadway musical, “American Idiot,” and Lee in the 2011 Broadway production of “Jerusalem”. He played Jim Harper in ”The Newsroom” and starred in the HBO mini-series Olive Kitteridge (2014). John will be appearing in “A Long Day’s Journey into Night” on Broadway in February 2016.

Gallagher has been writing music since his early adolescent years. He frequently performs in live spaces such as Rockwood Music Hall in New York and this is his first time at the me&thee. He has stated on multiple occasions that he is working on putting out a record which should be available in early 2016. He has confirmed that the songs “Wild Wild Woods”, “Sarasota Someone” and “Dangerous Strangers” will be on his first album, and that the sound of it is “more rock n roll with a few ballads and acoustics.” Johnny played the Philadelphia Folk Festival in August 2015.

Tickets for the performance by Anais Mitchell with John Gallagher Jr. opening are $20 in advance and $23 at the door. Student tickets are $10. Tickets are available online at www.meandthee.org and can be purchased in person at the Spirit of ’76 Bookstore or the Arnould Gallery in Marblehead. The Landing Restaurant at 81 Front Street, Marblehead offers a 10% discount on dinner if you show your ticket or receipt. Enjoy a meal before the show! As at all me & thee coffeehouse events, refreshments are available, including homemade pastries, coffee, and teas. The me & thee has a handicapped-accessible entrance and an accessible bathroom, is a smoke-free environment, and is easily reached by MBTA bus.

The me & thee is one of the oldest continually running acoustic coffeehouses in New England, and probably the country. It has been and will always be a volunteer, non-profit organization sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead. For information and directions, call 781-631-8987 or check the website atwww.meandthee.org.