Greater Boston Sings Hadestown, 2010-04-16
Anaïs Mitchell and Friends
Greater Boston Sings Hadestown
April 16th, 2010
Club Passim
Cambridge, MA
Vocals:
Anaïs Mitchell – Eurydice
Peter Mulvey – Orpheus
Tim Gearan – Hades
Kris Delmhorst – Persephone
Dinty Child – Hermes
Rose Polenzani, Anne Heaton, Melissa Myers – The Fates
Instruments:
Michael Chorney – guitar
Robinson Morse – bass
Geza Carr – drums
Nelson Caldwell – cello
Adam Moss – viola
Andrew Moroz – trombone
Anaïs Mitchell – guitar
Dinty Child – harmonica, accordion, melodica
Melissa Myers – saw
Anaïs Mitchell is a vastly underappreciated gem in the mosaic of modern folk music. An exceptionally literate songwriter (her father is a professor of English), she sings with unassailable passion, has a very distinctive picking style on guitar and possesses the rare gift of being able to create a genuine sense of theater in her songs without lapsing into melodrama. Many years ago, she and her friend/collaborator Michael Chorney first conceived the “folk opera” they named Hadestown, a dark and prescient production loosely based on the Orpheus myth and dense with allusions to the state of capitalism, politics and art in 21st century America. Together with a group of friends in their native Vermont, they raised enough money to stage the opera with a small cast and orchestra at a number of venues in Vermont and Massachussets in 2006 and 2007. I was able to attend one of the 2nd run of shows performed at the Somerville Theater near Boston, and found the production superior both musically and theatrically to most big budget musicals I’ve seen in New York.
Following another fundraising effort, Anaïs finally recorded the remarkable “songtrack” for the opera last year and enlisted folk luminaries Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver to join her in singing the principal parts. Available on the Righteous Babe label, it’s an amazing record but as a studio production doesn’t fully capture the more dynamic aspects of Hadestown as performance art. Her concerts to support the CD’s release certainly did, however, and the sold out shows at Club Passim in Cambridge this past April 15th and 16th were special in that an all-star cast was convened to sing the principal roles. The dream lineup included Peter Mulvey as Orpheus, local legend Tim Gearan as Hades, Kris Delmhorst as Persephone, and Dinty “sure I can play that” Child as Hermes. The supporting chorus of The Fates was comprised of Rose Polenzani, Anne Heaton and Melissa Myers (all wonderful singer/songwriters in their own right), with Rose also contributing some new vocal arrangements for these performances.
I reserved a table close to the stage for the second night as soon as I heard about these shows, and Club Passim’s manager/engineer Matt Smith was kind enough to let me to record the performance. No fewer than 14 musicians were part of this production, and the club’s tiny stage was supplemented by a table placed in front of it for the five principal vocalists to sit around. Most of the players had an opportunity to rehearse together earlier in the week, and it showed. Not only did each singer do a magnificent job with their featured role, but the ensemble passages were nothing short of breathtaking and the orchestra members performed brilliantly as well. It was one of those transcendent occasions music lovers live for, and the packed audience was appropriately respectful. My two Milab VM-44 mics were mounted on a column just a few feet from the stage and well positioned to capture the entire panorama of the sprawling cast, and I considered myself one very lucky taper!
I’ve waited until now to put the show up here because I wanted the finished recording to represent my very best effort at capturing the event. There were a number of issues with the raw mics tape that cried out to be fixed, such as the kick drum overpowering the vocal parts during the louder songs, room resonance that caused the string bass to throb loudly around 65Hz, some unpleasant volume peaks due to mic proximity, etc. Matt’s expertly crafted soundboard mix, which had some reverb applied, was converted to mono and mixed in at a very low level to add some depth to the soundstage. Coincidentally I had just begun an online course in Audio Mastering at Berklee around the time of the concert, and have considered this show a personal test case for the judicious application of EQ and multi-band compression. This version actually represents the third time I’ve mixed and mastered the raw recordings from scratch, and apparently it’s a charm because I’m finally satisfied that the result does justice to the musical occasion.
If you’re unfamiliar with Hadestown, the experience will best be served by putting aside an hour to listen through the entire concert in one sitting. Enjoy!
Track List:
1. Wedding Song
2. character introductions
3. Epic Part One
4. Way Down Hadestown
5. Hey Little Songbird
6. Gone, I’m Gone
7. When The Chips Are Down
8. Wait For Me
9. Why We Build The Wall
10. orchestra introductions
11. Our Lady Of The Underground
12. Flowers (Eurydice’s Song)
13. Nothing Changes
14. If It’s True
15. Papers (Hades Finds Out)
16. How Long
17. Epic Part Two
18. acknowledgements
19. Lover’s Desire
20. His Kiss, The Riot
21. Doubt Comes In
22. I Raise My Cup To Him
23. tumultuous applause
Stream the show from this link.
FLAC files can be downloaded from this page.
A zipped file of hi-fi mp3s can be downloaded from here.
Songs by Anaïs Mitchell
Score by Michael Chorney
Additional vocal charts by Rose Polenzani
House mix by Matt Smith
Joyfully recorded, mixed and mastered by Keith Bergendorff
SBD > Oade PMD661 + Milab VM-44 Link cardioids (DIN 5′ from stage 6′ up) > Grace V3 > Oade R-44 @24/44.1
Post-processing: Voxengo r8brain, Adobe Audition, Algorithmix PEQ Red and LP SplitComp, CD Wave (tracking)
Many thanks to Anaïs and Matt Smith for making this recording possible.
Support the artist and buy Hadestown and Anaïs Mitchell’s other fabulous CDs!
You can visit Club Passim at www.clubpassim.org.