Hi everyone,

I can hardly believe how much time has passed since our last update! The summer flew by, as it tends to do. We spent an incredible six weeks of it in Austin, TX, playing (and enjoying) a great deal of music. It was my first time in Austin, and I fell head over heels for the town and the people in it, who are almost unbelievably gracious and kind. From the relative strangers who invited us to stay in their homes, to the corner store clerks who gave us not only the directions we were seeking, but the inside scoop on the best of everything in town, to the warm welcome we received from so many in the local music scene, it was a beautifully memorable stay. As Adam puts it, "If you've forgotten how to be a good person, go to Austin. You'll remember."

Of the many wonderful experiences we had in Austin, one of the highlights was getting to play our music with drummer/percussionist Dony Wynn and guitarist Billy Masters, two of the greatest and truest players I know. They graciously joined us for nearly all of our shows, and together they brought our songs to new levels. It was a pleasure and an honor to get to work with them!

In addition to playing shows with me as The Dearest, Adam kept busy in Austin working on the new Ruby James album. Ruby is an incredible talent and a dear friend, and Adam has been cowriting songs with her for the better part of this year. They played a number of stellar shows while we were there, including a live DVD taping at the legendary Continental Club, which will be released sometime in the near future, as will her album. Keep your eyes open for it, it's gonna be a good one!

Also to be released in the near future is The Dearest's debut album! We are currently in Portland, OR, where we will be spending the next few weeks working with producer Dano Capristo on recording some of our newer material, and putting finishing touches on songs we've already recorded. We love working with Dano, and have been looking forward to this stage of the game for ages. Our goal is to have the album finished and available for purchase by the end of October! We'll be keeping you posted.

I'm including a couple of video links, one for our song "Undone," and one for our new song "I Shot an Arrow" in its debut performance at the Jon Dee & Friend Show, hosted by the amazing Jon Dee Graham. Adam had the honor of being the invited guest for the show while we were there, and we took the opportunity to play the new song with Jon Dee backing us up on guitar. As the first performance of the song it's a little rough around the edges, but we like it anyway.

Hope you all had a beautiful summer, and thank you for your continued support and interest in what we are doing...it makes it all ever so much more fun.

All the best,
Anna (& Adam)

Happy Summer Solstice! We are back in L.A. following an incredible week at the Holiday Music Motel in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, for the seventh annual Steel Bridge Songfest. This is always our favorite week of the year, and this time around was no exception! Adam and I were both privileged to collaborate over the course of the week with incredible songwriters from all over the country, and to get to record these songs at the motel's in-house studio! I never heard the official tally, but last I was aware there had been 71 songs written and recorded over the course of the week. Doesn't get much better than that!

Now that we're back, we have some exciting news to share with you. First of all, we're excited to announce the release of The Dearest's first music video, made for our song "Undone." The video was directed and produced by our friend Jessica Starodoj, and was a real labor of love featuring the work of a number of the kind and talented people we've crossed paths with during our time in L.A. It was definitely a group effort to pull this video together, but we want to say an extra-special thank you to Jessica for having the vision in the first place, and for taking it upon herself to see it all through! We think she did a stellar job. You can watch the video right here on the home page, or click here to see the video (with a full list of credits) in full-screen HD.

Our other exciting news is that in three weeks, we will be packing up our home sweet home in L.A. and heading out on the road for a while! The plan is to spend the first six weeks playing shows in Austin, TX. Adam has been traveling to Austin regularly over the past few months working on an album for the lovely and talented Ruby James, and his work with her has provided us with a great reason to spend some time there ourselves. We have already booked a few shows there (check the "Shows" page), and will be adding more to the page as we book them, so check back in with us periodically!

In September, we are planning to head up to Portland, OR for a month or so to finish work on our album with our friend and producer Dano Capristo. Sometimes it feels like we've been working on this album forever, but we have new songs in the works and it sure feels like there are more on the way...so I'm glad they'll all have a chance to make the cut! Looking forward to sharing them with you come September. We will also be spending some time in Seattle, WA, and will be booking shows there as well.

On another note, we will probably be driving up the West Coast to Portland the first week of September, so drop us a line if you want us to stop in your town to play a show! We are particularly interested in booking house concerts, so any ideas y'all might have along these lines would be much appreciated.

That's it for now! Enjoy the video, and please keep in touch! We always love to hear from you.

Best,
Anna (and Adam)

Spring is in the air, and Adam and I are excited to be putting the finishing touches on The Dearest's debut EP! To give y'all a taste of what we've been working on, we've posted three of the tracks to the site for you to enjoy...and if you take just a moment to sign up for our mailing list, you can dowload them for free! Adam is off to SXSW in Austin later this month to play a series of shows with the lovely and talented Ruby James; upon his return, we will be tying up all the loose ends on the album–we hope to have it completed by the end of April. In other exciting news, our dear friend and phenomenal artist Alexandra Almand has agreed to direct our first music video, which we look forward to shooting next month!

The Dearest has played a number of shows in SoCal this year, including two fantastic nights at The Cinema Bar's Ruby Tuesdays, hosted by Ruby James. We also played a show at The Blue Agave in Santa Barbara, which turned out to be our most magical show to date. Santa Barbara is my hometown, and it was the first time we ever performed there...turns out there is nothing more incredible than playing to a room filled to overflowing with the love of family and friends. Thanks Blue Agave! We hope to be back again soon.

Enjoy the new tunes, and please consider signing up for our mailing list if you haven't already...we promise not to flood your inbox! In fact (for better or worse) you can count on our mailings to be very few and far between–but we would love to keep you up to date on the big stuff :)

More to come...

xo
Anna

I can't believe summer's over already! Saying goodbye to summer is always a little sad. Work on The Dearest album continues. Later this month we will be going to Portland to work with Dano Capristo on mixing some of the songs. We've continued to have a blast performing in and around the L.A. area, and we've been lucky enough to have had guitarists Adam Daniel and Christopher Lawrence sit in with us at some of these shows, as well as legendary bassist/producer Rick Clark!

In other news, I'm excited to say that When Will You Be Mine, the song I wrote with Delaney Davidson at Steel Bridge Songfest 5, is going to be included on Delaney's new album! Delaney will be recording it in Germany later this month, and if the stars and modern technology align, I will be contributing a vocal to the track.

More to come!

xo,
Anna