Michaela Anne follows the release of her 2019 critically acclaimed Yep Roc Records debut, Desert Dove, with new album Oh To Be That Free - written and recorded during a time of great changes in her life.
Michaela Anne had no way of knowing what lay ahead when she began writing her gorgeous and aching new album, Oh To Be That Free - sobriety, pregnancy, a global pandemic, and the hemorrhagic stroke that would nearly kill her mother were all just around the corner - but listening back in the warm glow of hindsight, it’s almost as if she was writing a survival guide for her future self. The songs are profoundly vulnerable here, hinting at everything from Brandi Carlile to Kacey Musgraves as they reckon with the flaws and faults that keep us up at night, and Michaela’s delivery is tender and empathetic, insisting that we’re worthy of love not in spite of our shortcomings, but because of them. And so the freedom Michaela sings of isn’t the wild freedom of youth or rebellion, but rather the spiritual freedom that comes from learning to accept what is rather than what ought to be, from learning to appreciate what you have rather than what you want, from learning to look in the mirror and love the person staring back.
“She is deservedly a major emerging voice in country and Americana...” - Glide Magazine
“Lovely, catchy, and reminds us of that feeling between home and being lost.” - American Songwriter
“A gorgeously stirring dose of string-laden Americana with soaring harmonies.” - BrooklynVegan
"A rich eleven-song set that delicately delves into tender, vulnerable themes like motherhood, self-sabotage, and gratitude." - AllMusic