Evidences of Things Not Seen
"The whole realm of spoken and heard language must remain unsolvable so long as our seeing is not also a listening. It is to the invisible that listening may attend."
– Don Idhe in Listening and Voice: Phenomenologies of Sound (2nd Ed.)
It is August of 2025 as I work through the second year of my doctorate at the University of Georgia. The United States is gripped in a protracted fascist takeover, and I am listening – I am listening – with a renewed urgency to Anaïs Mitchell's Young Man in America. I first encountered Mitchell's music in the 12th episode (2012) of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale – her track Of a Friday Night was featured on the podcast and I was gripped by the immediacy of Mitchell's voice, the evocative nature of her lyrics, and the subtlety of her musical materials.
In the years that followed, I came across her other work and her 2012 album Young Man in America in particular (before being delighted by her later success with her hit musical Hadestown). The Young Man in question is the everyman (and as we will see, the everyperson), though a photograph of her father Don at age 30 appears on the cover of the album.
At a later point, I may look at some of what Mitchell herself has said about the album, but the album is already so rich with themes, associations, and musical materials that I will start with an exploration of the music itself and the ways that I hear it as I return again and again.
Track List / Analyses
- Wilderland
- Young Man in America
- Coming Down
- Dyin' Day
- Venus
- He Did
- Annmarie
- Tailor
- ShepherdShepherd
Music
Lyrics
Said the shepherd to his wife
The crop of hay is cut and dried
I'll bale it up and bring it in,
Before the coming stor... - You Are Forgiven
- Ships
Last modified: 08-31-2025