Outsiders, 2022 album from Oregon songwriter Anna Tivel on Mama Bird Recording Co., was one of the standout folk records in recent years. From the title track, which we described as “a slow-moving, mysterious track nevertheless grounded in the human experience […] looking to connect what seems faraway to our immediate situation,” to the searing intensity and narrative depth of ‘Black Umbrella’, Tivel positioned herself as one of the most imaginative and emotionally resonant songwriters today. Songs able to probe deep into herself and others with perception and grace and consequently evoke the wider backdrop of the contemporary American experience.
This summer sees Anna Tivel return with a new version of the album. Again release via Mama Bird, Outsiders (Live in a Living Room) is exactly what its name suggests. “Here are the songs from Outsiders recorded live and unembellished by the magic veil of production and band sound,” as Tivel explains. “Just my good friend Jon Neufeld and I in his living room with two acoustic guitars wandering through the stories as they were first imagined.”
What emerges is not only a new, perhaps purer version of the songs, but also a glimpse of two musicians attuned to one another. The spartan recording set-up conjuring the immediacy of intuition to grant the songs the tender resonance they deserve. As Tivel concludes: “We sat facing each other in wooden chairs, closed our eyes, and just let the songs be as they are.”
The latest single from the album, ‘Invisible Man’ highlights the different tone which results. Whereas the original album version is fleshed out with pattering drums and nuanced details, the new acoustic version strips things right back, and in doing so offers a new picture of vulnerability. “‘Invisible Man’ is a song about the fragility of the mind, how we’re all just one step away from losing it, by chemistry or circumstance,” Tivel explains, and if the original version had her singing through intruding details like a head of flitting thoughts, the new take is altogether lonelier. A song not so much fighting to keep its head above water, but rather mourning its position on the riverbed.
Outsiders (Live in a Living Room) is out on the 18th August via Mama Bird Recording Co. and you can pre-order it now.