Talking To Annie Dressner
Fatea writer Nic Rigby catches up with the Cambridge resident, US singer-songwriter
Cambridge-based US songwriter Annie Dressner brought out her third album last year and found herself nominated for Female Artist of the Year 2020. Fatea writer Nic Rigby caught up to her via Zoom.
The last time I chatted with Annie Dressner she had just played the Cambridge Folk Festivals and was getting rave reviews for her album Broken Into Pieces. Since then coronavirus has struck and Annie has released a new album Coffee at the Corner Bar.It was recorded and produced by her husband Paul Goodwin between their childminding duties.
"My husband recorded it between 8pm and 11pm at night when our kids were asleep," she says.
"The record is very different. The actual making of the record was very different and has quite a relaxed vibe to it partially because Paul and I know each other… and as we recorded it in our house so we had no limitations on studio time."
Many of the finely crafted song on the album have a similar them to the previous album.
"I tend to write about relationships, not necessarily romantic relationships, in my life," say Annie.
One of the most emotionally powerful songs is Dogwood.
It is a song of loss which includes the lines: "And it's been so long, that I can't believe it, Always though you would be here, beneath the dogwood."
Annie says: "I never really spoke about this before but that song, well, I lost my mother 10 years ago and so I wrote this about her passing away.
"I write a lot of songs about that period. Her favourite tree was a Dogwood."
Another great track on the album is Look What You're Doing to Us.
She says the song "is not about anything in particular. I was trying to evoke the feeling of being betrayed".
Memories of childhood are evoked in her song Nyack, a village near New York. The song has the same sort of energy as REM's Nightswimming.
"When we were kids my family and I used to go to Nyack which is about 45 minutes outside New York City," she says.
"It's a glimpse of our time there one thing that I told my brother I wrote a song called Nyack.
"But before I played he asked me did you write about the paw prints and that's part of the lyrics. I feel it's a good snapshot of our time there."
Annie says she's proud of the album and her collaboration with her husband.
"Paul produced my last record and I love collaborating. I'm proud of the songs I wrote but also proud of the production and our collaboration.
"There's no way I would have done that by myself. No way it would have sounded anywhere near as good.
"I really love collaborations because writing is so insular when you're writing on your own I grew up writing doing Theatre I love the collaborating with people.
(Nic Rigby is part of the band Nic Norton and the County Band. See nicnortonmusic.com)
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