'Annamania' is a selection of ten personal favorites from Anna Elizabeth Laube's previous four studio albums released between 2006 and 2016 together with three songs not previously available on albums. One of the latter is the only cover, a version of Tom Petty's Time To Move On which is rendered a mellow piano ballad.
Laube abandoned a career in tech in San Francisco to pursue a career in music. She is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and engineer. A mobile studio enables her to work independently, hiring other musicians and mixers whenever necessary.
During Covid she returned to her family home in Wisconsin. Prior to this she lived and worked nomadically touring extensively around the USA and internationally both in Australia and Europe. All My Running suggests that ,more recently, finding a more settled place to live has become a higher priority.
Another brand new song is Jardim da Estrela inspired by Laube's time spent in Lisbon, Portugal, featuring Chris Joyner on accordion.
Laube's soothing voice is used to good effect on these easy going tunes strongly rooted in traditional Americana. There are also a few chugging blues-orientated songs like Beautiful Boy for good measure.
I'm Gone has a more rocky beat and has boosted her bank balance through being featured in the Netflix show 'Locke & Key'.
Anna Elizabeth Laube classifies herself primarily as a folk singer rather than a country artist but there's a nice variety of styles in this collection to ensure its wide-ranging appeal.
