hypersongs

Hadestown

The folk opera as a concept album, with Justin Vernon as Orpheus.
Anaïs Mitchell, 2010

Mitchell sings Eurydice, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver sings Orpheus, Ani DiFranco is Persephone, Greg Brown is Hades, Ben Knox Miller is Hermes and the Haden Triplets are the Fates. Sickafoose plays bass, piano and pump organ and arranged and mixed, Chorney plays acoustic and prepared guitar and orchestrated, and Jim Black plays drums. After staging it in 2006 and 2007, unsure of its stage future, she made it an album, raising a few thousand dollars by asking fans to buy merchandise, and spent more than a year on it. It was nominated at the 53rd Grammys for Best Recording Package.

PopMatters (Alex Ramon, 9 of 10) called it an Americana classic that does not require a Classics degree to appreciate, and NME (Emily Mackay) wrote that Mitchell has always been good but Hadestown is her Odyssey.

Track listing

  1. Wedding Song3:18
  2. Epic (Part I)2:22
  3. Way Down Hadestown3:33
  4. Songbird Intro0:24
  5. Hey, Little Songbird3:09
  6. Gone, I'm Gone1:09
  7. When the Chips Are Down2:14
  8. Wait for Me3:06
  9. Why We Build the Wall4:18
  10. Our Lady of the Underground4:40
  11. Flowers (Eurydice's Song)3:33
  12. Nothing Changes0:52
  13. If It's True3:03
  14. Papers (Hades Finds Out)1:24
  15. How Long?3:36
  16. Epic (Part II)2:55
  17. Lover's Desire2:05
  18. His Kiss, the Riot4:03
  19. Doubt Comes In5:32
  20. I Raise My Cup to Him2:10

More from Anaïs Mitchell

The Song They Sang...When Rome Fell (2002), The Brightness (2007), Hymns For The Exiled (2008), Young Man In America (2012), Anaïs Mitchell (2022)

Sources

  1. Hadestown (album), Wikipedia
  2. Anaïs Mitchell: Hadestown, PopMatters (2010-07-19)
  3. Anaïs Mitchell: Hadestown, NME (2010-04-26)