Here’s a stunner from Anna Vogelzang called “Mercy” from her new EP release Driftless due out November 11.
Her lovely poignant lyrics delivered with her distinctive vocal style draw the listener into her wistful musings. Her driving strum pushes the song along…it has somewhere to go!
She shares, “I wrote this song while driving through first a gorgeous day, and then a snowstormy night in Iowa (through the Driftless region). I had to write a song based on the prompt “Found” that week. it was a few days before my dad’s birthday, and part of they hymn Amazing Grace popped into my head as I was driving. Part of ‘Mercy’ touches on the landscape around me during the drive, but the gut of it is about family, how close we can be while so physically far away. How nostalgic we can be for the places we come from, and yet how distant we can be when we get on the phone to check in with family.
“This is a homesick song, and a song to honor my dad, a song about traveling mercies I’ve been fortunate enough to endure, and a song where I acknowledge the shift of what ‘home’ is for me — from where I grew up, to this new place I’ve carved out for myself as an adult. This song got so lush and sparkly in the studio, it blew me away. I’m thrilled with how guttural and yet beautiful this song feels."
Driftless is the follow up to 2012’s celebrated Canary in a Coal Mine.
Vogelzang has been making songs since 2000, playing them in public since 2003, and driving them around the country since 2007. Her melody-driven, multi-instrumental folk-pop ballads have been met with warm reviews and landed her at festivals, conferences, and on bills with some of her heroes, including Sara Bareilles, Gillian Welch, Mirah, Anais Mitchell, Laura Gibson, Wye Oak, Steve Poltz, Amanda Palmer, and many more.
Vogelzang is currently touring in support of the Driftless EP, a home-spun, steadfast collection of gritty new-folk songs, many of which were written in 2014 as part of the song-a-week project RealWomenRealSongs. In 2015, she will return to the studio to work with prouducer Todd Sickafoose on her fifth LP. Vogelzang plays the banjo, ukuleles, guitar, and kalimba on stage,
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Acoustic Nation is written by Laura B. Whitmore, a music industry marketing veteran, music journalist and editor, who has contributed to Parade.com, Guitar World, and others. She has interviewed hundreds of musicians and hosts the She Rocks Podcast. As the founder of the Women’s International Music Network, she advocates for women in the music industry and produces the annual She Rocks Awards. She is the Senior Vice President of Marketing for Positive Grid, making the world safe for guitar exploration everywhere! A guitarist and singer/songwriter, Laura is currently co-writing an album of pop songs that empower and energize girls.
