Michaela Anne Releases Desert Dove via Yep Roc Records

New Tour Dates Announced, including NPR’s Mountain Stage on November 3

Noted for her introspective lyrics and pristine vocals, Michaela Anne is redefining the bounds of modern country music. Today, Michaela is proud to share her anticipated new album Desert Dove, her first for Yep Roc Records. Recorded in San Clemente, California, with the help of producers Sam Outlaw, Kelly Winrich (Delta Spirit), and an all-star backing band, the album has proved to be her most dynamic yet, both lyrically and musically. No Depression complimented each song as having, “authenticity and depth,” while Associated Press said the record, “has a vitality that outshines much of what dominates the airwaves these days.” Today, Michaela Anne announced that she will make her debut on NPR’s Mountain Stage on November 3, in addition to new tour dates in Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, supporting Joe Pug. The East Coast Desert Dove tour kicks off next week in Asheville, North Carolina. Desert Dove is available today, click here to purchase or stream.

In addition to Associated Press and No Depression, Desert Dove has garnered national praise from a multitude of outlets that include Billboard, Rolling Stone Country, Paste Magazine, Wide Open Country, Brooklyn Vegan, Albumism, The Bluegrass Situation and The Boot; regionally, Michaela has appeared in print in Nashville Scene and Nashville Lifestyles, who commented that, “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.” Pre-release singles have reached over 180,000 streams worldwide and have been featured on a number of playlists including Amazon Music’s Fresh Folk + Americana, Apple Music’s Southern Craft, and Spotify’s The Pulse of Americana.

“…Desert Dove has a vitality that outshines much of what dominates the airwaves these days. Anne has a lovely voice, and the first-rate ensemble playing behind her, untethered by traditional country conventions, ranges comfortably between Eagles-style rock and the gentle, acoustic-electric equilibrium that croon-rocker Chris Isaak perfected back in the ’90s.”
– Associated Press

“Anne isn’t afraid to embrace cinematic strings over classic country instrumentation, but keepsher glassy quiver and introspective lyrical approach
at the core of Desert Dove.”
– Rolling Stone Country

“Each song fits in an Americana box, but they sound so much bigger than that. The one constant is Michaela Anne’s stunning voice, which resembles the crystal-clear delivery of ’90s country stars like Trisha Yearwood and Deana Carter… sweeping, unclouded music as wide and beautiful as the desert that inspired it.”
– Paste

“Captivating vocals… stunning”
– Billboard

“Michaela Anne has one of those arrestingly beautiful voices that stop you in your tracks. Anne’s songs possess a real authenticity and depth… Some might say they just don’t make ’em like they used to. But with Desert Dove, Michaela Anne did.”
– No Depression

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 2016 release Bright Lights and the Fame, which received critical acclaim from NPR, The New York Times, Stereogum, and Noisey. Setting foot in both a new recording location and headspace, Michaela Anne set out to address this batch of songs with a fresh take, not leaning too hard on traditional arrangements or instrumentation; pushing herself to a new depth of songwriting. “More than any of my previous records, this album has been a really intense journey from writing, recording, finding a home for it and now getting ready to release it,” Michaela explains. “There’s a lot of joy, pain, growth, shadow and light, deep vulnerability, and fearlessness I tried to express through these songs and recordings and I hope listeners feel that.”

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) helped layer the album with a unique blend of sounds, while the lyrics within Desert Dove tell intimate stories of Michaela’s life and personal experiences; from the nomadic lifestyle of her childhood that has carried on through being a musician (“Child of the Wind”) to the complexity of heartbreak (“Somebody New”) and of finding love on her own terms (“By Our Design”).

Michaela Anne also attacks most of the album with a sharp feminine perspective, dealing out wisdom, confidence, and sass with authority and maturity that is never tiresome. The easiest example of this is Michaela Anne’s light-hearted rebuttal to condescension and “mansplaining” with “If I Wanted Your Opinion,” a co-write with acclaimed singer-songwriter and fellow Nashvillian Mary Bragg. “When I got to Nashville, I was told the ‘rules’ of songwriting,” Michaela recounts. “I was informed that a woman in a country song can never be the victim, but she can also never be the perpetrator. That’s not real life. As a woman, sometimes you’re everything all at once, and I wanted to write about those real experiences.”

Amidst the ups and downs of Desert Dove, there is a recurring focus on the emotions that fall in between peaks and valleys. “This record, for me, highlights the gray area, the nuance of emotional life and relationships that seems to be harder to convey in today’s modes of communication and limited attention spans: short excerpts on Instagram or Twitter paragraphs,” says Michaela Anne. “Nothing is black and white, solely good or bad. Who we are, how we live, how we love, what we desire or reject, it’s all full of contradictions and confusions. I wanted to explore that through my songs with care, depth, reality as well as light-heartedness, fun and fantasy.”

Catch Michaela Anne on Tour:
Oct 4 – Asheville, NC – New Belgium Brewing Company
Oct 5 – Nashville, TN – Grimey’s In-Store Performance
Oct 10 – Decatur, GA – Eddie’s Attic
Oct 11 – Raleigh, NC – Kings
Oct 12 – Wilmington, NC – Bourgie Nights
Oct 13 – Charlotte, NC – Evening Muse
Oct 16 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
Oct 18 – Lowell, MA – The Town and The City Festival
Oct 19 – Saugerties, NY – Hangin’ & Sangin’ Live at Broken Wing Barn
Oct 22 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir *
Oct 24 – San Francisco, CA– The Chapel *
Oct 25 – Los Angeles, CA – Pico Union *
Nov 3 – Charleston, WV – Mountain Stage at Culture Center Theater

* with Joe Pug

More About Michaela Anne:
Michaela’s writing first began garnering national attention with the 2014 release of Ease My Mind, an old-school collection hailed by The New York Times for its “plain-spoken songs of romantic regret and small-town longing” and named one of the year’s best country albums by The Village Voice. After a move from Brooklyn to Nashville, Michaela followed it up in 2016 with the similarly lauded Bright Lights and the Fame, which featured guest appearances by Rodney Crowell and Punch Brother Noam Pikelny. Rolling Stone compared her to Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, and Noisey praised 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.” Songs from the record landed on high profile Spotify playlists as well as the HBO series ‘Divorce,’ and the album earned Michaela slots at Bristol Rhythm & Roots, Merlefest, and both the US and UK iterations of AmericanaFest, along with a seemingly endless series of dates across the States and Europe with the likes of Mandolin Orange, Courtney Marie Andrews, Joe Pug, Ron Pope, and Sam Outlaw.

About Yep Roc Records:
Founded by Glenn Dicker and Tor Hansen in 1997, Yep Roc Records is based in Hillsborough, NC and calls itself “the artist-driven label that refuses to be labeled.” With a strong belief in the vision of each of its artists, Yep Roc Records strives to serve each project based on its unique characteristics. Over 20 years, the label has released albums from North Carolina and international artists, including Aoife O’Donovan, Mandolin Orange, Tift Merritt, Chatham County Line, Dave Alvin, Los Straitjackets, Nick Lowe, and Robyn Hitchcock. The label is exclusively distributed by Redeye.