The Ann Arbor singer-songwriter chats about her latest studio album with Local Spins, which also debuts tracks by several other Michigan artists, including The Go Rounds and Sage Castleberry.
A ‘Storm’ of Painful Emotions: Annie Bacon tackles difficult topics with her new studio album. (Photo/Cybelle Codish)
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As a seasoned singer-songwriter who’s absorbed life’s travails and triumphs, bringing fans to tears at performances can be a wholly satisfying experience – especially when your latest album is all about grief.
“There’s been a lot of crying and I wanted to do that,” Ann Arbor singer and guitarist Annie Bacon said of recent concerts promoting release of her latest studio album, “Storm.”
“I want people to feel like they can experience their own grief, create this sort of collective experience of grieving together. … I always think that my songs have work to do in the world and I don’t know what that work is. It’s something mystical that is in this song that’s going to speak to somebody somewhere.
“People have said things like, ‘I feel like the song was made just for me.’ Now there’s no better compliment to a songwriter. I mean, that is just really the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about one of my songs.”
Bacon’s New Album: ‘Very deep and tender’ material. (Photo/Cybelle Codish)
While Bacon’s entire professional life has revolved around writing, whether songs, poems or fiction (including her first novel centered around themes of “motherhood and war” that she’ll be pitching to agents), her latest studio project delved into especially difficult and sensitive territory. But she also knew this was a milestone project in her career.
“I feel like everything I’ve done as an artist so far has led me exactly to this moment,” she said.
“I went through a lot of really hard stuff the last five years – so many of us did with the pandemic – and there was a lot to write about and all of the skills, all of the craft, all of the work, it all brought up to this moment of creating this grief album. And it’s death, it’s divorce, it’s heartbreak, it’s loss of identity.”
Recording her fourth album as Annie Bacon & Her Oshen at musician and producer Paul Defiglia’s Nashville studio, Bacon said she felt “completely at home and totally safe” while laying down “very deep and tender” songs.
“It was an almost spiritual experience. Profound synergy,” she recalled of the sessions that created tracks immersed in “incredible painful” topics.
“Every single person’s grief is so different and every loss is so different, and yet there’s something comforting in knowing how many other people are grieving at the same time you are,” she reasoned. “You’re alone together.”
PLAYING THE ALBUM LIVE IN GRAND RAPIDS & A BUSY YEAR AHEAD
Bacon brings a version of her Oshen band to The Stray in Grand Rapids on Oct. 4, performing with drummer Daine Hammerle, bassist Mark Hugger, keyboardist Chris Raney and guitarist Michael Robertson, who also opens the show. (Get tickets and details online here.)
“These guys are just, I mean, monsters. I feel very lucky that they want to play my songs,” she said. “We’ll play the album in order, plus a couple older songs at the end. So folks can expect a dynamic and emotional folk-rock experience with some stellar musicianship.”
Annie Bacon & Her Oshen, ‘Storm’
Bacon grew up in Maine and spent 18 years in California’s Bay Area before moving to Michigan, where she now lives with her son. She cites a wide array of musical influences: Cat Stevens, Nina Simone, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Tracy Chapman, Joni Mitchell and Tom Waits, while also getting inspiration from current artists such as Kacey Musgraves, Harry Styles and Kacey Johansing.
She plans to tour behind “Storm” in the coming year while also juggling two part-time jobs, performing with the Badass Women Band, pitching that new novel and wrapping up recording of a long-planned “electro-folk album.”
“It’s a lot,” she conceded. “I’m a single mom, but I’m a part-time single mom so I have parallel parenting. I do sometimes not have my kid … so in those times, I try to fill up my time as much as possible. So that’s worked out really well for trying to play a lot of shows and be really busy and have projects.”
For this week’s edition of Local Spins on WYCE, Bacon featured two tracks from the new album – “Alone With Grief” and “Mist.”
The show, which spotlights music by Michigan artists at 11 a.m. Fridays and 5 p.m. Sundays on WYCE (88.1 FM) and online at wyce.org, also featured songs by Jordan Hamilton, Trillium Groove, The Brothers Crunch, Jayme Ray Pyne, Michael Robertson, Billy Strings, Sturtz, The Lasso & The Go Rounds, Sage Castleberry and Kylee Phillips. Listen to the show here.
PODCAST: Local Spins on WYCE (9/20/24)
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