Portland, Oregon-based artist Anna Tivel has announced her seventh studio album of all new original material, Animal Poem, set to arrive on August 29 via Fluff & Gravy Records (Margo Cilker, Kassi Valazza, Jeffrey Martin). Recorded live in a circle with some of her dearest friends, including fellow Portland artist and co-producer Sam Weber, the 10-track set was made in conversation: everyone together in the room, listening and responding in real time without the separation of walls and headphones.
Tivel is sharing a music video for the title track today, made with frequent collaborator Kale Chesney, offering simply, “A meditation on the stories we tell ourselves and each other. We map our understanding in ever changing narrative, both painful and profound, live inside the worlds we spin.”
Of the upcoming album, Tivel writes:
“Every album is a snapshot, a momentary study of the way a mind reaches for understanding. I can feel myself reaching in these songs, for whatever is right beyond my grasp. Mortality and connection. Suffering and meaning. People lead the narratives, come into orbit, spin away again – an exhausted mother at a freeway exit, an aging neighbor surrounded by a growing pile of newspapers, the unsung heroes of a midwest uprising, two lovers looking at the sky.
It’s hard to know how to hold a creative life in a time that feels fraught with venomous division, careening technological advance, and an ever widening chasm between the affluent and the dispossessed. What good are poems when affordable housing is scarce, the climate teeters on a dangerous edge, and war breaks out over misinformation spread by profit hungry algorithms? I think about being here. How brief it is. How incomplete our understanding. I think about history. All the worlds we’ve created and broken. Revolution and renaissance. Hope and humility. Everyone here is living a creative life – teachers and parents, kids and convenience store clerks. We’re all tasting this wild existence, finding ways to express how much it hurts and moves us. This work is my own small addition to that communal story. The water we swim in. The way our attention molds our truths. Humanity is unfolding as we describe it. We’ll never get it right, but the attempt is everything.”
News of the new music arrives ahead of Tivel’s debut apperance at this year’s Newport Folk Festival, where she was handpicked for the lineup by artist curator Nathaniel Rateliff. She will also make an appearance on the Wildflower Stage at Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in addition to teaching at the festival’s Song School. Immediately following Animal Poem‘s release, Tivel will embark on an extensive North American tour supporting The Waterboys. See below for full tour details.
Animal Poem Tracklist:
- Holy Equation
2. Animal Poem
3. Paradise
4. Badlands
5. Hough Ave, 1966
6. Airplane To Nowhere
7. White Goose
8. Fluorescence in the Future
9. Meantime
10. The Humming
Anna Tivel On Tour:
June 19 — The River Sessions — Vancouver, WA
June 20 — Wildwood Music Fest Revival — Willamina, OR
July 25-27 — Newport Folk Festival — Newport, RI
Aug 8-10 — Rocky Mountain Folks Festival — Lyons, CO
Sep 4 — 9:30 Club — Washington, DC*
Sep 5 — The Vogel — Red Bank, NJ*
Sep 6 — Webster Hall — New York, NY*
Sep 9 — Keswick Theatre — Glenside, PA*
Sep 10 — Théâtre Beanfield — Montréal, QC*
Sep 11 — The Danforth Music Hall — Toronto, ON*
Sep 12 — The Athenaeum Theatre — Columbus, OH*
Sep 15 — The Basement East — Nashville, TN*
Sep 16 — Thalia Hall — Chicago, IL*
Sep 17 — Uptown Theater — Minneapolis, MN*
Sep 20 — Commodore Ballroom — Vancouver, BC*
Sep 21 — Neptune Theatre — Seattle, WA*
Sep 23 — Aladdin Theater — Portland, OR*
Sep 25 — The Fillmore — San Francisco, CA*
Sep 26 — The Bellwether — Los Angeles, CA*
Sep 27 — Belly Up — Solana Beach, CA*
Sep 28 — Crescent Ballroom — Phoenix, AZ*
Sep 30 — Lensic Performing Arts Center — Santa Fe, NM*
Oct 2 — Paramount Theatre — Austin, TX*
Oct 3 — Longhorn Ballroom — Dallas, TX*
Oct 4 — Tower Theatre — Oklahoma City, OK*
*supporting The Waterboys
