Shawn Colvin W/Anais Mitchell

As a storyteller, Grammy Award winner Shawn Colvin remains both clear eyed and warm hearted, leavening even her toughest tales with a little tenderness and a lot of empathy. Similarly, her music arrangements are both succinct and seductive, understated enough to allow Colvin's lyrics to sink in. Colvin and her longtime studio cohort - producer, multi-instrumentalist, and co-writer John Leventhal - arent's afraid of pop hooks, either, but the ones they've fashioned on her new release These Four Walls never sound contrived. A sing-along chorus or plantive refrain come up as naturally as a bend in the road; they're just part of the journey.
Listening to this 25-year-old singer/songwriter Anaïs Mitchell perform her meticulously written songs, fervently singing them in a distinctive, almost childlike voice, you'd think it was her life mission to rouse the hearts and minds of her listeners with an acoustic guitar.