music

WILL IT EVER BE THE SAME

(2020)

From Keith Smith’s review of “Will It Ever Be the Same” at AmeicanaHighways.org: 

“With this intensely personal latest release from Clark not only has she validated that there was a reason to continue her artistic journey but, that the world is a much better place with her music, humor, compassion, and insight not only into her world, but ours.”  

Link to Full Review: https://americanahighways.org/2021/08/23/review-anni-clark-will-it-ever-be-the-same/ 

Purchase album HERE

11 years ago, I dreamt that I was completely distraught & running hard when I reached the end of a dock, teetered precariously there, regained my balance & avoided a fall into turbulent water. I began running back along my prior path when a “Woman in White” appeared in a field of deep green. She comforted me with her smile & a glowing light that warmed me before I woke. 2 or 3 weeks later, my artist friend, Judi Puiia, gifted me with the painting that graces the front panel of this CD. I had not shared my dream with her… spooky cool that she painted me at peace at the end of a dock. 

Fast forward to May 24, 2020… I had been solo quarantining for 10 weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All my live shows had been canceled, I had no income, people were dying & all over the world we were reshaping our lives to adjust to this crisis. I was physically healthy, but I was desperately lonely. I felt an overwhelming need to have myself a good cry. I was at the end of a dock on Moosehead Lake in northern Maine when I became a blubbering idiot. I lost my balance, fell into the frigid lake & injured my left leg pulling myself to shore. 

The song “Will It Ever Be the Same” just poured out of me 2 days after a stay at the hospital where they put 20 stitches in my leg. The fact that I didn’t die of hypothermia or drowning is not lost on me. I believe I survived this near-death experience for a reason. I have more music to share, more life to live & more lessons to learn. I felt a definitive pull to get back into the studio for the first time in 18 years. (I released a LIVE album in 2005, but my last studio album was Big Water in 2002. Funny how I am continually drawn to water!) 

These 12 songs all connect in some way & speak, at least to me, about love, loss, transition, hope, social distance & the need to find closeness. Can our lives ever be the same after COVID-19? Probably not. But they can be better. We have an opportunity to come out of this thing much stronger & more focused on what is really important. Maybe it takes a pandemic or a fall off a dock for us to dig down deep & find the best in ourselves. That painting of me at peace at the end of the dock? I’m not there yet. But that’s where I’m headed. Meanwhile, I’m “Between the Rungs” but I am dancing.

Anni Clark - LIVE (2005)

After more than 2 decades on the road with my music, I decided it was time to record my 1st ever all solo "LIVE" CD... Dan Merrill, fellow songwriter (& 1/3 of my trio "under the song tree" with Lynn Deeves) recorded this concert on August 1st, 2004 at Deertreees Theatre in Harrison ME... an awesome, intimate venue on top of a big hill in a grove of trees above a lakeside village... very Maine-like setting, complete with a John Deere Tractor outside the window in the field... great acoustics, great audience. 15 tracks... some of my most requested tunes, & 2 songs never recorded before: the parody "I'm from Maine" & a song penned only days before the show called "Between the Rungs". It's just me and my guitar, having fun with the folks who came to be a part of it... a sweaty, memorable summer night.

BIG WATER (2002)

If ever I made a concept album, this is it. Each true story song makes is its own metaphor and works together as part of the whole "Big Water" theme. We recorded a lot of the tracks live again, as on "A Light for Liza"... and the guys I'm playing with are like family now... you can feel that communication in all of the tracks. If I'm gonna drown blissfully, this will be the way.

UNDER THE SONG TREE - LIVE! (2001)

Dan Merrill, Lynn Deeves and I have finally made the album we've always wanted. Recorded on a cold February night in Portland.

A LIGHT FOR LIZA (1998)

This is my baby... I am soulfully connected to this album in a big way... This was my first co-production with Steve Drown and he really helped me to find my place inside these songs. Most of the sessions were recorded live, mics all over the room, very little overdubbing, so there is a raw energy present here, a real pulse that doesn't get lost in the translation... I am still looking for Liza, but she'll come home... I left the light on.

LETTING GO (1994)

My first CD, and a real break through for me... perhaps because I was, in fact, learning to let go... vocally, emotionally, lyrically... I worked with Tom Blackwell again, and he introduced me to Robby Coffin (guitars) and Scott Elliot (bass)... we wound up being great friends, and they worked very closely with me on the next project as well. The girl on the cover is my niece, Hannah, and she is literally trying to stay up on that bicycle... Hannah is also the niece of Bill Shepard in "Bill Shepard's Van", and YES, that's a true story! Talk about letting go...

EARLY ANNI (1997)

It finally dawned on me that a lot of Anni Fannies wanted the older material, but they didn't necessarily want it on vinyl, so we re-released the first two LP's on one compilation CD. We had to drop one song, "All or Nothin' Girl", to fit the disc... which means, of course, that the real die-hard fans will have to get the Maine-ly Original LP in order to have the entire recorded catalogue thus far. The photo on the CD was taken in 1982... it was my first outdoor festival gig... I was SOOO happy!