Star Anna (photo: Hillary Harris) and Chan Marshal of Cat Power (photo: Steve Gullick)
Star Anna’s artist and album recommendation: “Cat Power’s You Are Free is the first one of hers I bought. I was in High School and I had just started playing guitar. It meant a lot to me that the songs could be simple without compromising depth or feeling. This was one of the records that really helped me make the transition from garage band drummer to singer/songwriter.”
About our guest author, Star Anna: As soon as we clicked play to listen to For When We Go (mp3 below), we were immediately knocked out by Star Anna’s voice. It has the same controlled urgency that drew us to Lucinda Williams. It’s experienced, it’s soulful, it’s honest and it has won over a couple of big name fans to help spread the word. Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses fame classified her as ‘the real deal’ in this editorial for The Seattle Weekly and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam (who plays guitar on her new album) states that her singing ‘…takes me to a higher place.’ Her first two praise-magnet records won her a Song Of the Day spot on NPR in 2009 (Through the Winter) and she was labeled as one of the ‘Next Big Things’ in On Sound magazine. The new album is called Alone In This Together and it’s on Local 638 Records, the label run by our favorite female North Westerner, Rachel Flotard of Visqueen fame. Buy Star’s album here and check her site for upcoming tour dates.
MP3: For When I Go
(Photo of Star Anna by Vee Sawyer)
About our guest author, Christina Perri : Christina’s rise is as Cinderella as you can get. She moved to Los Angeles with dreams of making it big. She worked as a café manager and posted YouTube videos of herself singing both originals and covers. Bill Silva Management took interest and she began recording. Her song Jar of Hearts was featured on the TV show So You Think You Can Dance and the rest is history. The song was downloaded over a million times and she snagged a deal with Atlantic Records. Christina was asked to perform the song live on the show and she went on to record eleven more songs for her full length 
collection that was released in May of 2011 and was produced by Joe Chiccarelli (White Stripes, Tori Amos, The Shins). She’s now on the road and 
About our guest author, Anais Mitchell: We were first turned on to Anais a few weeks ago when 
— One of my favorite Elvis albums. I recently cut a song from it called Like a Baby with Jack White for 
About our guest author, Wanda Jackson: Where do you even begin to describe the greatness that is Wanda Jackson? You can talk about her well earned titles of “Queen of Rockabilly” or “First Lady of Rock,” but leave it to Bob Dylan to come up with the description that is perhaps the most fitting: “An Atomic Bomb in Lipstick.” Who else but the trailblazing Wanda could have toured with Elvis, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis and, as her site bio describes it, “was the first woman to perform unadulterated rock and roll?” Wanda signed with Capitol records in 1956 and then blasted up the charts with a top 40 hit, Let’s Have a Party. Since then, she’s been nominated twice for Grammys and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. But the story doesn’t end there. Jack White has produced her latest album,