Little Pink

New from LITTLE PINK:

Gladly Would We Anchor

15 tunes from singer-songwriter Mary Battiata

"Virginia's Mary Battiata sings like an angel, resembling, variously, Linda Thompson, Margo Timmins or Roseanne Cash, yet she's clearly wrestling with some devils on this, the follow-up to Little Pink's 2001 debut. The album opens innocuously enough with the gently rolling gospel-folk of "Like A Wheel," but within a couple of songs it turns edgy and lined with shadows ... . Ultimately, though, Gladly Would We Anchor isn't a downer because, by peering into the darkness, Battiata is wielding the illuminating rays of hope." - Harp, Nov. 2007

”15 songs that should keep listeners thinking -- of Lucinda Williams and Roseanne Cash, for starters – but mostly how Battiata, in her own quiet, subtle, insinuating way, earns such comparisons.... Haunting vocals, melodies and rhythms that keep folding back on themselves, creating dreamlike sequences that have a cumulative effect. It's not hard to imagine Emmylou Harris or Williams covering many of these songs …” – THE WASHINGTON POST

"Covering revolutions, civil wars, famines and two genocides as a foreign correspondent is not the normal stuff of singer-songwriter bios … Equally, filing stories on horrors almost beyond words may help explain the unsettling edginess and concision of her songwriting. Part twang, part folk, part pop, Battiata is not the most accessible of songwriters, but she's all the more rewarding for that.” -- John Conquest, 3rd COAST MUSIC (4-star review)

"Best of 2007" (Songwriter Category) - 3rd Coast Music

Little Pink on WAMU's Metro Connection

Produced by
Philip Stevenson and Mary Battiata
With Chris Watling, Eric Shramek,
John Gnorski, special guest Ben Peeler,
Don Campbell, Charles Steck,
Lyle Kissack …

Gladly Would We Anchor is the follow-up to Little Pink’s engaging 2001 debut, Cul-de-sac Cowgirl. The new CD,
on the Night World label, features lead singer and songwriter Mary Battiata (Harp Magazine 2002, “Songwriters You Should Hear,”) at work again with a band of frequent collaborators drawn from the best of Washington DC’s roots and jazz scenes, along with guest artist Ben Peeler (Los Angeles) and co-producer Stevenson.

With a title taken from Emerson’s essay on Experience (“Gladly we would Anchor, but the anchorage is quicksand … ”), Little Pink’s latest charts the landscapes of love lost and the crossing into midlife with keen lyrics and bright pop melodies. It’s moody folk with a twang, and a distinctive guitar-driven sound that critic Benjamin Johnston describes as “somewhere between the beer-soaked sounds of roadhouse bar bands and the academic folk music of coffeehouse performers.”

Highlights: 13 original tunes from Mary, plus covers of songs by Nick Salomon (“Stars Burn Out”), co-producer Stevenson (“The Brokenhearted”), and a co-write (“Stolen Flowers”) with acclaimed DC singer-songwriter Karl Straub.

Previously from LITTLE PINK:

Cul-de-sac Cowgirl (2001) “Battiata’s pipes and way with song construction … are equally strong. She’s a real writer, too, so listen to the words. Think Emmylou or early Dolly, mixed with Richard and Linda Thompson.”– georgepelecanos.com

“ ‘It’s interesting to speculate where Battiata learned to write so well; as a journalist in the early 1990s, she covered the war in Bosnia. Does writing about the terrors of war make one more prepared to write about the terrors of love and loss? Surely aplomb is necessary in making either subject palatable for the reader – or the listener. On Cul-de-sac Cowgirl, it’s clear that Battiata has the mind, the voice and the band to make the songs go down easy.’ For fans of: the Cowboy Junkies, the Jayhawks, Victoria Williams.” – Benjamin Johnston, highbias.com

12 Birds (2003) (Acoustic EP) “Mary Battiata’s 2001 debut was on my very short list of favorite discs I reviewed in 2002 … If this singer-songwriter has a trademark, it’s the sound of a broken heart being dissected with a steely gaze and a steady hand. She also draws on a full bag of references without freighting her songs with too much art. … 12 Birds whets the appetite for more to come.” – Gary Whitehouse, Greenman Review