Michelle Anthony

If you were walking into a club, Milwaukee-based singer-songwriter Michelle Anthony‘s Louisville Slugger of a voice would hit you right in the ears, and so would her Chrissie Hyndesque way of trailing off at the end of phrases. After a few tunes, though, it would be clear that she has much in common with the cheerfully depressed Los Angeles songwriting scene that cradled a pre-Magnolia Aimee Mann and her hubby, Michael Penn. After all, one of Anthony’s best tunes, “Mourning Song,” is a description of an anniversary. Her latest album, the existential Stand Fall Repeat, produced by multi-instrumental svengali Jay Bennett, emphasizes Anthony’s pop sensibilities. Even buoyed by Bennett’s layers, though, Anthony’s roots show. Her bio mentions that she was born in “a distant suburb of Kansas City” (DeSoto? Platte City? Omaha?). We need to claim her, fast.