One of the many highlights of the AMA UK Festival in London earlier this year was the Yep Roc Record Label’s showcase at the trendy Oslo Gastro Pub in Hackney. Six acts signed to the North Carolina-based label performed - established names such as Chatham County Line and Daddy Long Legs, alongside emerging ones, Jack Klatt, Jonah Tolchin and Mapache.
The final artist from their roster was Michaela Anne, who falls somewhere in between ‘emerging’ and ‘established,’ while winning more and more attention thanks to her quite excellent album, DESERT DOVE, which came out last year.
This was a return visit to the festival for the Brooklyn-born artist, currently residing in Nashville, and the difference between now and her previous appearance was dramatic. A less than satisfactory sound system and a small crowd twelve months ago, did little to highlight her capabilities and talent nor to match the dazzling performances I caught with her and her band in Nashville on a number of visits in recent years.
This time around and the experience is on an altogether different level. The sound is crystal-clear, there’s a full house and a cracking band (which includes her husband and musical director Aaron Shafer-Haiss on drums) provides her with the platform to show just why she’s gathered acclaim since the release of DESERT DOVE. She grasped the opportunity with both hands and delivered a set that underlined her outstanding vocal ability as well as the undoubted quality of the material on the album.
A few hours earlier I had been sitting across the table from Michaela Anne in the upstairs bar and it was one of those déjà vu moments as we met there in 2019.
She has impeccable social skills - she’s extremely polite, smiles and laughs a lot, often even at her own expense. Clearly, she has a very wise head on young shoulders, practical and under no illusions of how challenging her chosen profession can be. “A music career costs a lot of money”, she tells me, in a matter of fact way.
After releasing two well-received albums, EASE MY MIND (2014) and BRIGHT LIGHTS & THE FAME (2016), her career appeared to be progressing very much to plan.
It was thrown off course with the demise of the independent label that released her second album, leaving her with a bunch of songs written for her follow up, but without the financial support of a label. Taking the courageous decision to head to California to record the album could have spelt financial suicide. On the contrary, it gave her free reign to put her own stamp on the product without any undue record label interference. It also proved to be a blessing in disguise as the highly respected Yep Roc signed her on the strength of the album.
“It was extremely difficult. I still to this day go back and forth and think what was I doing (laughs). When it came to make this record, I could have done a Kickstarter fund raiser. I’m not knocking Kickstarter and might very well do one in a few years. I just didn’t want to have to ask people for money. As a musician you can always be depending on people’s kindness and generosity, it can be soul sucking. I just wanted to do this for myself and take the risk of betting everything on the record. I eventually took out a bunch of credit cards and ran up a bunch of debt and then Yep Roc came along.”
Self-christened “the artist-driven label that refuses to be labelled’, they would appear to be tailor made for Anne – somewhat like-minded acts such as Aoife O’Donovan, Amy Helm, Tift Merritt and Kim Richey, to name but a few are label mates. She explained how the connection developed.
“My manager also works with other acts on Yep Roc. So, when I had the album finished, he and I were sending it to a number of labels and they were on that list. Fortunately, they liked it and I went out to North Carolina and met them. There was a lot of relationship building. It’s always been an uphill climb, trying to put all the pieces together for an album at the same time. I love being on Yep Roc and have a great manager, so it feels like home. They have given me the support to do what I want to do. Their prerogative is simply to allow artists to be artists. And it’s worked, the album has sold much more than my other records”
She worked with co-producer Sam Outlaw - she had previously played guitar in Outlaw’s band - and Kelly Winrich of Indie Rock band, Delta Spirit. The decision proved to be rewarding, giving her the space to complete the album devoid of the everyday intrusions that could arise when working from her home base. The relocation also had an impact on the musical direction of the album, which manages to forge a sound with roots in both traditional and modern country.
“Kelly, who recorded the album, has a home recording studio in San Clemente in California and it became an option to spend a few weeks out there. I liked that idea and I also liked getting out of Nashville. I love living in Nashville a lot and have a super community of friends there, but it can also get stifling sometimes and hard to be creative. It was easier to focus outside Nashville and not get distracted by what was going on. There weren’t any shows or any other things happening in San Clemente, we were just writing without distractions.”
Thankfully, she avoided crossing over to the dreaded pop/country sound with the album. Having moved from Brooklyn to Nashville, she also resisted the temptation to enter the ‘nine to five’ writing school scenario, which appears to be the recommended route to stardom on Music Row. Nor did she have a master plan to target any particular market.
“I definitely don’t look at markets (laughs). I do it from the heart. The most I’ve ever done is try to dip my toe in the song writing scene in Nashville. I thought, “should I be more like some of the others, writing songs for other artists’’ but I immediately knew I had to write for me. I made this record based on what I wanted to write and with music that I like to hear, yet looking consciously for a certain sound. I think it is classic country combined with a modern sound. I don’t know that many records that have the duel influences of that classic country sound but also with a modern feel that I was looking for. Shania Twain and The Dixie Chicks both did that back in the 90’s.”
Much of the album reads like a heartfelt, personal diary, taking stock of her everyday personal experiences. The tight rope balancing act of trying to keep all the balls in the air at the same time are explored, whether it be fulfilment, marriage, desire, ambition and frustration. The splendid opening track on the album, By Our Design speaks of the toils of her and her husband, surviving the calling of their careers as professional musicians (“Straight jobs and steady pay, were never in our cards to play. Late nights and songs to sing and long drives are our trade”).
‘For me, I hadn’t started touring until about five years ago and I was probably a bit naive as to how difficult it is to live out of a suitcase, away from your family and your loved ones.’
Though petite in stature, you get the impression she is quite a street wise individual, well able to fight her corner. The inclusion of the song, If I Wanted Your Opinion, stemmed from continuing encounters with sexism and gender inequality in the industry.
“It’s still is really bad. You hear that women are just whining but there is a lot of deeply ingrained sexism in a lot of places. I wrote If I Wanted Your Opinion based on a lot of personal reactions I’ve had. I have to say I haven’t only experienced it in the US, it’s everywhere. A man in Amsterdam asked me if I had any children and if I felt guilty playing music and leaving my children behind. He thought he was being funny, I told him ( in no uncertain terms) that he wasn’t.”
The Highwomen (Natalie Hemby, Brandi Carlisle, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires ) were formed essentially to make a statement about the lack of radio airplay for female artists on Country Music Radio. Their debut self-titled album released in 2019 reached No.1 in the American Country Charts and No.10 in the Billboard Charts. Commercially driven, or otherwise, they have certainly made an immediate impact and not surprisingly Michaela Anne gives them the thumbs up.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea. If they are commercially driven, I think it’s to push the gender issue and try to get radio play for female artists. Being commercially driven is not a bad thing at all and I think it’s a beautiful record and not modern pop country. I don’t know them personally but I think they are four genuine sisters trying to give a platform to that sentiment. I’m a big fan of Brandi Carlisle, I think she is pretty incredible.”
After a whirlwind twelve months with a record label signing and an album that’s been earning glowing reviews, how does she foresee her career progressing in the short term?
“I have no idea (laughs). Exposure, working hard, playing a lot of shows, hoping that the people promoting are really promoting in an effective way, all will help. There are a lot of things that an artist has little control over. All I can do is keep making the music, putting myself out there on social media, being patient and staying true to myself.”
For someone who exhibits the charm of a Southern Belle and the grit of a New Yorker, is she still a Brooklyn girl at heart?
“I feel like I’m a New Yorker in a lot of ways and I’ll always be a New Yorker in my heart. But it’s so fast and so expensive in New York. I love the pace in Nashville, I love owning a house, having a garden, living beside Percy Priest Lake, having space and being close to nature yet also close to the city. We are about twenty minutes’ drive from Downtown. We lived in East Nashville when we came first and it feels like you’re at Americana Fest all the time. We joke that we now live off campus. I do miss East Nashville, the bars, restaurants and coffee shops and a lot of my friends live and work over there but it’s also beautiful where we live.”
Interview by Declan Culliton