The first song on Anaïs Mitchell’s first solo album for a decade is Brooklyn Bridge, a snapshot over softly rising piano chords that sees her crossing the East River and leaving New York in a taxi, a loved one beside her. It could be a moment from a movie, or perhaps even a musical, which is the world that has kept Mitchell away from singer-songwriter work for a long time.
Way back in 2006 she was taking a budget version of her musical Hadestown, which transplants the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to Depression-era America, around Vermont in a converted school bus. In 2010 it became a concept album, with Ani DiFranco and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver singing roles alongside her. By 2016 what would become the best known version was opening as an Off-Broadway show, and by 2018 it was at our National Theatre. It had won eight Tony Awards on Broadway by 2019 and a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album by 2020.
