Michaela Anne is gearing up to release her highly-anticipated new album Desert Dove on September 27 via Yep Roc Records. She has released the album’s third single “Somebody New”, about which Billboard commented, “A lush arrangement of wavering electric guitar, steady percussion and Anne’s captivating vocals highlight the song… stunning.” Read more and watch Michaela perform the song at Layman Drug Company here.
The track is currently featured on Spotify’s Fresh Folk and Amazon’s Fresh Folk + Americana playlist. To further explain the themes of the single, Michaela teamed up with TIDAL to personally curate a playlist of songs that “hurt so good”, featuring her favourite heartbreak songs. Pre-order Desert Dove here.
Recorded over the course of several weeks in San Clemente, California, Desert Dove was completed “on location” last year with the help of an all-star cast. Producers Sam Outlaw and Delta Spirit’s Kelly Winrich assembled guitarist Brian Whelan (Dwight Yoakam, Jim Lauderdale), fiddler Kristin Weber (Kacey Musgraves, Margo Price), and drummers Mark Stepro (Ben Kweller, Butch Walker) and Daniel Bailey (Everest, Father John Misty) to address this batch of songs with a fresh take, not leaning too hard on traditional arrangements or instrumentation. In the current issue of Nashville Lifestyles, writer Luke Levenson commented, “The classic country-style songs sound as if they’re being sung from an expansive cave or a massive honky tonk… the effect is a group of acoustic songs with the brevity of country songwriting and the capricious intensity of indie rock.”
The album’s second single, “Child of the Wind”, is a great example of this; using a chunky, fuzzy electric guitar in place of what could have been a pedal steel or fiddle intro, adding sonic and tonal variables to the breadth of Michaela Anne’s range of characters and motifs. Brooklyn Veganpremiered the track in July, calling it “a catchy, breezy dose of modern country” and Albumism highlighted the song via their “New Music We Love” column, describing Michaela as a “a gifted, graceful voice that demands to be heard.” The single is featured on TIDAL playlists “New Tracks Folk & Americana” and “Wildwood Flowers”.
Announced in June via Rolling Stone with the release of the “introspective” lead single “By Our Design”, Desert Dove is Michaela Anne’s full-length follow up to her critically-acclaimed 2016 release Bright Lights and the Fame. The 2016 album garnered praise from NPR, The New York Times, Stereogum, and Noisey, who celebrated her as the antidote to commercial pop-country, calling her “our saving grace, our angel, the person who will help usher us into a new age.”
Desert Dove is Michaela Anne’s first release as a new signee to Yep Roc Records. North Carolina-based Yep Roc announced their partnership with Michaela Anne on May 16th of this year, making her label mates with the likes of Mandolin Orange, Jim Lauderdale, Aoife O’Donovan, Chatham County Line, The Felice Brothers, Amy Helm, Tift Merritt, and Kim Richey. Billy Maupin, Yep Roc’s General Manager, says of the signing, “We are ecstatic that Michaela Anne is now part of the Yep Roc family. Her new album showcases her as a triple threat of singer, songwriter, and performer. We are excited to be part of the release.”
