“Amid the masses of talented songwriters and folk singers in Melbourne, Anna Cordell is emerging as something exceptional. Her songwriting is mature, dynamic, melodic and honest. Her wistful but commanding voice, accompanied by fluid nylon string guitar deserves to be widely heard and celebrated.” Ruth Hazelton Anna Cordell plays tender yet deceptively complex folk music that belies a childhood spent learning the piano, guitar and musical theory. Her voice is rich and tender yet lyrically her music is filled with angst and conflict, an emotional impact that is heightened by her penchant for the minor key. Cordell’s music went and lost its priority after she completed university as she starteda family and her own business. Now that her children are, mostly, at school – the 32year old has four girls all under 10 years old – Cordell has been able to focus moreon her music. Since 2013 Cordell has been gigging profusely at Melbourne venues such as Howler, Prince Of Wales, playing alongside artists such as esteemed folk artist LukeLegs, emerging talent Jackson McLaren and Matt Kennally (canary) and in October, 2014 Anna was a part of a very special tribute to Jesse Younan at The Northcote Social Club with Ben Whiting. Growing up on the Mornington Peninsula Cordell was part of a large Catholic family with the church being her first real introduction to music. “I guess I am subconsciously influenced by the pattern of church music, not the happy clappy kind, the medieval sort! I used to go to a monastery with my grandparents where the monks sang this beautiful stuff, I’ll never forget it,” explains Cordell. However, it is another aspect of Cordell’s spiritual upbringing that has profoundly impacted her song writing, “So many of my songs have been born from my own spiritual struggle. I’m naturally a bit of a hedonistic materialist but I’ve been brought up in this intense Catholic tradition which teaches you how to live: unselfishly. It’s aways asking me draw back from worldliness, to have faith in something greater, which is so hard, I’m not great at it!” Cordell doesn’t mind a bit of melancholy, which she share with her main influences, Nick Drake, Townes Van Zant, Radiohead and Diane Cluck. “I love the minor key and unresolved open chords. To me they represent a few things to me: Writing songs in the minor key seems to elicit an unspoken melancholy. And the unresolved open chords are moments asking for resolution. These chords lend themselves to be lead in a new direction. And then eventually this will resolve on a major chord the moment of reprieve, hope, relief,” contends Cordell.