ANA EGGE

Ana Egge has always talked to strangers. As a songwriter, she’s as interested in other people’s stories as she is in her own: the young mother sitting next to her on a plane, the city employee locking up the park at night. ”I’m always saying, ‘Go on, go on… ‘” laughs Ana. “And trying to hide the notebook.” But her interest is genuine– compassionate– and as a result, so are her songs; they’re real stories, told from the heart with humor and humanity. But what happens when the stranger is someone you know? When mental illness turns a loved one into someone you don’t recognize? How do you tell that story, which is both theirs, and your own? On Bad Blood, her latest (seventh) album produced by Steve Earle, Ana turns an unflinching eye on these intimate, and painful stories. Ana comes by this depth and curiosity honestly. Growing up with parents who “dropped out,” their chosen lifestyle to raise four girls in a lovingly cobbled together combination of a small farmhouse on the North Dakota plains, a bus on the California Coast, and a hot springs commune in rural New Mexico, scraping together dimes and hand me downs, Ana learned that her life was truly hers to create. When she got the musician bug as a teenager, she took matters into her own hands, building her own guitar and moving to Austin to observe, absorb and take musical risks. Seeing Ana perform live for the first time, you are immediately struck by the combination of this uncompromising fearlessness, her confidence in her place on stage and the earthy wit and kindness that is the lens she uses to see the world. Not to mention the crystal clear and uniquely affecting voice that is her vehicle. Living in Brooklyn, NY for the last 10 years, Ana continues to write and play live without losing the Western outlook that formed her.