Musical Interlude.

It's review time! I was going to put in a bunch of books and the current albums I have on repeat, but I decided that this one should get its own post because it is so rad.

Anais Mitchell - Hadestown
This is apparently a Folk Opera. Point is, it's a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, with Greg Brown as Hades and Ani DiFranco as Persephone. Eurydice is the adorably-voiced Anais Mitchell (a girlish, 1940's type of voice I normally despise, but she absolutely pulls it off) and Justin Vernon from Bon Iver as Orpheus (his voice is made to stand out with an interesting chorus effect). It is brilliantly produced by Ani DiFranco's bass player, Todd Sickafoose and the Fates are the awesome Haden Sisters, a trio of triplets with some serious vocal chops.

The orchestration is very enjoyable and surprisingly complex (see clip #1). I am usually more neutral on the folk/Americana/bluegrass but this has enough good ingredients that I like that it makes for a delicious musical stew. Ok, so that was not my best metaphor ever. Let us just say, somebody sent us this album via the internet and I had to go out and buy it at an actual record store because this is the music I want to support with my cash monies.

Orpheus (the broke musician) and Eurydice

 

The devil's offer... 

Is it silly that I assume anyone reading my blog is familiar with the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice? Because I totally do.