“If your heart is going to be broken, may it be broken so beautifully as this”

Folk Alley

Somewhere deep in the middle of a good story, a simple and powerful thing happens. You begin to feel seen. The characters have been slowly undressed, layer upon layer of hope and human flaw, their struggles revealed. They remind you of your family, of a briefly encountered stranger, of yourself.

Anna Tivel reaches for that thread of understanding with her music, that moment of recognition, of shared experience. There are thousands of miles on her touring odometer and each town is a tangled web of heartache and small reasons to believe. She gravitates toward the quiet stories of ordinary life. A homeless veteran sitting on a bench to watch the construction of a luxury hotel. A woman wondering about the life of the daughter she had to give up for adoption. Someone changing shape, someone falling in love, someone all alone.

“Tivel’s characters are both common and unforgettable,” Ann Powers of NPR writes, “ She possesses a genuine poet’s sense that words matter more than persona, or a showy performance. Her images linger, and become populated with the energy of the real.”

After three full-length albums out on Portland’s Fluff and Gravy Records, Anna Tivel is set to release her fourth this Spring. Her most recent release, 2017’s Small Believer, was heralded by NPR as an “album that repeatedly achieves this exquisite balance of the quotidian and the sublime.”

The follow-up to that accalimed album, The Question, was recorded mostly live at Hive studio in Eau Claire, WI, engineered by the esteemed Brian Joseph (Boniver, Sufjan Stevens) and produced by drummer and multi-instrumentalist Shane Leonard. The first two singles have already been featured at Rolling Stone, Folk Alley and Billboard. The Question will be released digitally and physically (CD and LP) by Fluff and Gravy Records on April 19, 2019.

Soundcloud Link

Press Materials

Album Download
Album Cover (image by Ill Gander)
Press Photos (photos by Matt Kennelly)
One Sheet
Lyrics

Credits

Shane Leonard – drums, wurlitzer, acoustic guitar, percussion, organ, synthesizer, violin, electric guitar
Courtney Hartman – electric and acoustic guitar
Ben Lester – pedal steel, piano, synthesizer, rhodes
Jeremy Boettcher – bass
Josh Gallagher – wurlitzer, organ, synthesizer
Skip Vonkuske – cello
Jeffrey Martin – vocals
Alex Spiegelman – clarinet
Rhonda Michalski – oboe
Anna Tivel – vocals, guitar, violin

Produced by Shane Leonard
Engineered by Brian Joesph at Hive in Eau Claire, WI
Additional engineering by Shane Leonard at The Bungaleau
Strings arranged and conducted by Shane Leonard
Strings recorded by Jon Neufeld at Treehouse Studio in Portland, OR
Mastered by Richard Dodd

All songs (c) 2019, Anna Tivel, ASCAP, (p) 2019, Fluff and Gravy Records

Find Anna Tivel Here

Anna Tivel Official Website
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Praise for ‘The Question’

“It’s easy enough to write a song that imagines a world without borders; much harder to write a song that takes on the present dark, harsh contemporary complexities and realities of borders and immigration. “ – Rolling Stone

“Anna Tivel sneaks up on you. Or, rather, her songwriting does. You probably will not notice, right away. You’ll be listening along thinking, “What a lovely record this is!” Then, seemingly out of nowhere but actually having been there all along, one of her lyrics will wallop you right where (and when) you most need it.” – Folk Alley

Praise for ‘Small Believer’

“Anna Tivel has one of those voices that shivers with intimacy, so even when she’s singing about cars and the weather, you lean in to hear how she puts the words together.” – NPR (100 Best Songs of 2017)

“Critics have likened Anna Tivel’s songwriting to poetry, and it’s easy to see why. She cuts her words on glass, creating phrasing that is at once sharp, precise, and poignant.” – The Bluegrass Situation

“Devastatingly Beautiful” “10/10” – Americana UK

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