July 15, 2010
The past few months have flown by! Adam and I now have a band, as well as a band name. We were starting to be referred to as "Adam & Anna" and thought we'd better come up with something before that one stuck...so we settled on "The Dearest." Somewhere along the way we had the good fortune of connecting with pedal steel player extraordinaire John McDuffie, brilliant fiddle player Nikita Sorokin, and drummer/percussionist Scotty Lund, an enormously talented and super sweet guy who plays a paradoxically mean cajon. We have an absolute blast every time we get to perform with these amazing players...and to top it all off, they're wonderful people to boot.
The work on The Dearest's first album continues with our dear friend and producer Dano Capristo. Dano continues to blow us away with his masterful ability to coax out aspects of our songs we've never heard before, both in his approach to the production and with his innate (and ingenius) percussive powers. We've also been fortunate enough to have killer bassist Kelly T. LeMieux, John McDuffie and Eric McFadden (two of the greatest guitarists around) all rub some of their magic on a few of the songs. Both Scotty Lund and Nikita Sorokin will soon be recording on the album, as well as Adrienne Hatkin (on accordion and Glockenspiel) and Andrea Wittgens on piano. We had the good fortune of meeting both Adrienne and Andrea in Sturgeon Bay, WI at this year's Steel Bridge Songfest in June. We were thrilled to be invited to participate in the Construction Zone songwriting workshop at the Holiday Music Motel in conjunction with the festival again this year. I got to write and record with some incredible songwriters, and I loved every single second.
I've added some videos of The Dearest's performance at the Downtown Independent Theater on May 16, when we had the honor of performing for the LA premiere of Westbound, an absolute gem of a documentary made by our dear friends at Arketype. Manda Mosher, a local songwriter/performer, was kind enough to film and share these videos with us. Enjoy!
February 23, 2010
It's hard to believe February is drawing to a close! January and February have flown by, as I've been busy settling into Los Angeles and getting more active musically in the region. Adam Mackintosh and I have played several wonderful shows at Witz End in Venice...it is a beautifully intimate venue with a great listening audience, and it has been a pleasure to perform there. On Sunday February 21, Adam and I hosted a Songwriter's Night at Witz End...we had an amazing time performing and playing host to an extraordinary line-up of songwriters.
In other exciting news, Adam and I began recording our first album this month. I am thrilled to be working with our good friend (and brilliant producer) Dano Capristo. We hope to have the album completed by the end of this summer!
January 2, 2010
Happy New Year! Check out my interview with the wonderful folks at Paper Darts, published TODAY on their website! The interview will be published in print later this spring.
