Oh to Be That Free Again (Acoustic) featuring Critter Eldridge
Out now via Yep Roc Records!
Oh To Be That Free (2022)
About the album
I wrote these songs following a period in my life where I felt I was coming undone. Everything was unraveling but by my own doing. My own unhealthy choices, hurting myself, and those I loved. These songs came through the aftermath: the healing and deep honest reflection. Confronting my own shadow and the brutal realities of the human condition but with curiosity and compassion.
But then, as we recorded this album, life once more changed in multiple ways. A pandemic stopped everything. My way of living, my career, my dreams were paused but so were the rest of the worlds. My husband and I conceived our first child. And then my mother, who I am deeply close to, suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke rendering her paralyzed and mute. A devastation I didn’t think I could survive, let alone while growing and giving birth to my first child. As I spent the second half of my pregnancy sitting at the hospital staring at my mom and then with her during therapy, I would listen to these songs. I would play them for her over and over. I was surprised to notice how they grew roots and deepened in meaning. They were helping me. They were healing me. These songs became a lifeline and a reminder of the bigger picture of our existence. The fact that life as humans is equally astonishingly beautiful and heart wrenchingly painful. And that what we have is our stories. I feel grateful to have the ability to share this work and this experience. My hope is that if your heart needs healing too, you may find some in these songs.
- Michaela Anne