Michaela Anne 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.”

Click here to purchase or stream Desert Dove!

Desert Dove is Michaela’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 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. 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.

Michaela Anne

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 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’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. 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.

Michaela Anne

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. 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.

Michaela Anne

Catch Michaela on tour:

10/4  – New Belgium Brewing Company  – Asheville, NC

10/5  – Grimey’s Records  – Nashville, TN (in-store)

10/10  – Eddie’s Attic  – Decatur, GA

10/11   – Kings  – Raleigh, NC

10/12 –  Bourgie Nights – Wilmington, NC

10/13 –  The Evening Muse  – Charlotte, NC

10/16 –  Mercury Lounge  – New York, NY

10/18  – The Town and the City Festival  – Lowell, MA

10/19  – Hangin’ and Sangin’  – Saugerties, NY

10/22 –  Doug Fir – Portland, OR*

10/24  – The Chapel – San Francisco, CA*

10/25  – Pico Union – Los Angeles, CA*

11/3  – Mountain Stage at Culture Center Theater – Charleston, WV

*with Joe Pug