In May, Portland singer-songwriter Anna Tivel played NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, performing songs from her 2022 album Outsiders supported only by drums and keyboards. She strips back her music even further on the forthcoming Outsiders (Live in a Living Room), re-recording the whole full-length virtually front to back on just her acoustic guitar, accompanied by fellow guitarist Jon Neufeld. Tivel’s folk fingerpicking and soft, compelling voice are reminiscent of Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker, and her songwriting—full of tragic figures and folks down on their luck—brings to mind Elliott Smith.
Like the work of those artists, closing track “The Bell” is marked by its mixture of stark clarity and empathetic warmth. “Lit up like a firecracker, you’ve been burning out for years,” she sings, probing the source of distress: “How’d the world get so confusing, how’d the ache inside your chest/Go from something beautiful to something dangerous?” In just a few resonant details, she sketches a moving portrait of a person who just can’t keep it together anymore—despite, or maybe because of, the fierceness of their passion. Calamity lies just around the corner: “I guess the rain is coming, and it’ll rain like hell,” she warns, “But nothing ever changes ’til you ring the bell.” That chorus offers an image of desperate hope—a promise of salvation delivered with unusual tenderness.
