Anna Tivel is an American singer-songwriter from

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

, Oregon. She has released four studio albums on Portland-based Fluff & Gravy Records. Her 2017 album ''Small Believer'' received positive reviews and was named a "Top 10 underheard album of 2017" by

Ann Powers Ann K. Powers (born February 4, 1964) is an American writer and pop music critic. She is a music critic for NPR and a contributor at the ''Los Angeles Times'', where she was previously chief pop critic. She has also served as pop critic at ''The ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

. In 2019, NPR called her album ''The Question'' "one of the most ambitious folk records of 2019"; it was also listed by '' Paste'' as one of "10 essential folk albums from 2019".

Biography

Tivel was born in

La Conner, Washington La Conner is a town in Skagit County, Washington, United States with a population of 965 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Mount Vernon– Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town hosts several events as part of ...

and grew up in a musical family, learning violin and

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

as a child. After moving to Portland at age 18, she developed an interest in songwriting and began to write and perform her own material. Many of her songs are vignettes about the lives and struggles of ordinary people; she said in an interview "I'm drawn over and over to the small stories of people (myself included) just trying to get by, to do a little better, to feel some sort of beauty in an ugly world." Tivel's songs are often somber in tone as she has said that she "just oesn'ttrust happy songs as much". ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' listed her as a standout performer at the 2019 AmericanaFest in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

, writing "In a week of countless songsmiths showcasing their attempt at that exact type of singer-songwriter storytelling, Tivel's winding, largely chorus-less tales shined and shimmered." The magazine also named the lead single from ''The Question'', "Fenceline", a "song you need to know". On her last album, ''The Question'', she collaborated with engineer

Brian Joseph Brian D. Joseph (born November 22, 1951) is an American linguist specializing in historical linguistics. He is a Distinguished University Professor of Linguistics and the Kenneth E. Naylor Professor of South Slavic Linguistics at Ohio State Univ ...

and producer and musician Shane Leonard. In 2021, Tivel was reported to be appearing on the podcast ''

Storybound ''Storybound'' is a podcast created, produced, and hosted by Jude Brewer, with original music composed for each episode. The show is a collaboration between ''Lit Hub'' and The Podglomerate podcast network, featuring household names and Pulitze ...

''.

Discography

*''Brimstone Lullaby'' (2012) (as Anna and the Underbelly) *''Before Machines'' (2014) *''Heroes Waking Up'' (2016) *''Small Believer'' (2017) *''The Question'' (2019) *''Blue World'' (2021) *''Outsiders'' (2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tivel, Anna American women singer-songwriters American folk singers Musicians from Portland, Oregon Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American singer-songwriters 21st-century American women