In the summer of 1997, when Anna was 18 years old, she travelled with a group of friends and a carload of professional audio equipment to a remote farmhouse in Vermont. A makeshift recording studio surrounded a baby grand piano in the living room.
The resulting DAT tape contains an album Anna titled “Red & Blue”, with 11 mastered tracks (10 original songs and one cover). The album circulated via bootleg CD’s among close friends and family, but was never officially released to the public.
Anna’s musical momentum carried her quickly toward other projects and experiences. She went on to study classical piano and voice at UNC-Greensboro and at the University of Queensland in Australia. Over the next 24 years, she performed in countless rock bands, collaborations, recordings, and epic cameo stage appearances.
As Anna explored the infinite realms of her natural talent, she continually revisited and added to this vault of original songs. Some of these songs were still evolving, along with her musical style, into her final years.
For Anna’s birthday this year, we have prepared a special sneak-peek of three selected tracks from Red & Blue: Days of the Dancing, Pink Balloons, and Mars. These tracks were chosen because Anna considered them finished - she did not rewrite, arrange, or perform them differently after this recording. These songs are a small taste of her early creative expression from ages 15 to 18.
They hint at the immaculate, mystical grandeur she shared with all of us through her music and voice. The lyrics are spun with imagery, mythos, and metaphorical themes that are woven through the entirety of her life and being. They are tiny, essential threads in Anna’s grand tapestry of song.
Stay tuned- the complete album (and much more) will be available here, coming soon….
- Ben Rose
∞∞∞
The Way It Is by William Stafford
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.