Anna Tivel
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Before Machines
Fluff and Gravy Records is proud to welcome Anna Tivel to the family. Raised among the ferns and the farmland of Northern Washington, Anna loved words long before they became the backbone of her music. “My sister, my mom and I would go to our little town library with a rolling suitcase and fill it to bursting,” she remembers, “we’d read in the car, in the bath, under the covers late at night, always piles of books, always music playing, from Paul Simon to Dylan, from The Kingston Trio to Itzaak Perlman.”
Entranced by the sound of her grandfather’s violin, Anna started learning in the first grade and never put it down. In 2006, she moved to Portland, muddled through college, and started waiting tables and playing some fiddle on the side. Over the next few years she was swept up by and welcomed into the Portland music scene, playing with multiple groups around town including the Nathaniel Talbot Quartet, Shook Twins, and The Jackalope Saints. But it wasn’t until she picked up the guitar, learned a few chords, and started writing songs, that music began to fill a much bigger space in her life. “It was like being dunked in cold water or slapped in the face…in a good way,” she says, “it suddenly became ok that i couldn’t seem to retain concrete information, that my head is always full of sensory things, smells and sounds and color. Suddenly there was a place for all of it.”
Anna’s first album, 2012’s self-released Brimstone Lullaby, was recorded by Rob Stroup at 8Ball Studio in SE Portland. The album is a fully flushed representation of that first year of songwriting, colored by some incredible local musicians. Her new album, titled Before Machines, brings a more intimate, raw batch of songs to the table, recorded mostly live and mixed to tape at Fluff and Gravy Studios, with a group of musicians who were only roughly familiar with the material. Bassist Sam Howard (Tony Furtado, Ruth Moody), guitarist Taylor Kingman (The Hilldogs) and drummer, David Strackany provided the backbone for the live tracks, with overdubs by Michael Monko (guitar) and Jeffrey Martin (vocals). The intention was to capture these songs in their most naked form, before multiple rehearsals and repetition had a chance to smooth over the edges. The result is a warm and honest record that allows Anna’s songwriting to be at the forefront.
Before Machines will be released on June 17, 2014 on cd and digital formats. Anna will be touring through 2014 in support of the record.
Find Anna Tivel here www.annativel.com
Praise for Before Machines
“Portland songwriter Anna Tivel is a favorite over at Hearth. She’s a deft, clever songwriter with a knack for observing the small, subtle beauties of our lives.” – Kithfolk
“Raw yet superbly composed and executed, as well as intelligent and personal and deeply expressive in their experience, observation and storytelling, the fifteen tracks on Before Machines don’t just serve as an absorbing and utterly worthwhile listen but as indisputable evidence that the folk scene is in good hands with both its longtime artists and newcomers alike.” – No Depression
“To be sure, these are organic songs that freely reveal the poetry of the mind, heart and soul, the sharp imagery of the world translated into sound, and both the simple and complex things represented sentimentally and at length.” – Examiner
“Anna Tivel’s voice is haunting, exhibiting the timbre of a precocious child, whispering to a teddy bear underneath the covers.” – The Bluegrass Situation
More Praise for Anna Tivel
“Anna Tivel brings a raft of beautiful songs with brine-soaked images of Pacific Northwest tidepools, oceans, and the birds that wheel above them in the gray skies.” – Devon Leger, No Depression
“Anna’s strength is that of a lyricist. Her songs are filled with lines that intrigue and haunt.” – David Steinberg
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Stream Before Machines tracks here
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