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**★★★★☆**

Long before Broadway's bright lights beckoned, Anaïs Mitchell was weaving ancient myths into modern folk tapestries in the verdant hills of Vermont. Her 2010 concept album *Hadestown* emerged from a decade of creative gestation, beginning as a community theatre project that gradually evolved into something far more ambitious. What started as local performances featuring Mitchell herself alongside a rotating cast of New England folk luminaries eventually crystallized into this remarkable studio recording—a complete retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth that feels both timeless and urgently contemporary.

Mitchell's vision transforms Hades' underworld into a Depression-era industrial hellscape, where the lord of the dead is reimagined as a capitalist overlord and his realm becomes a factory town built on exploitation and broken promises. It's a bold conceptual leap that could have easily collapsed under its own weight, yet Mitchell's sure hand guides the narrative with remarkable confidence, crafting songs that work both as standalone pieces and as essential components of a larger tapestry.

The album occupies a fascinating space between traditional folk and theatrical storytelling, drawing from Appalachian balladry, New Orleans jazz, and vintage Americana. Mitchell's voice—clear, pure, and occasionally fragile—serves as both narrator and participant, while her collaborators bring distinct personalities to their roles. Bon Iver's Justin Vernon delivers a haunting turn as Orpheus, his falsetto perfectly capturing the young poet's naive romanticism, while Ani DiFranco brings fierce determination to Persephone, the queen of the underworld who's grown weary of her seasonal prison.

The album's opening salvo, "Wedding Song," establishes the doomed romance between Orpheus and Eurydice with Mitchell's delicate fingerpicking and a melody that feels like it's been passed down through generations. But it's "Way Down Hadestown" where the concept truly takes flight, introducing Hades' realm through a hypnotic, blues-inflected groove that builds from whispered menace to thunderous proclamation. Greg Brown's gravelly baritone proves ideal casting for Hades, transforming the god into a smooth-talking industrialist whose promises of security mask sinister intentions.

"Wait for Me" stands as the album's emotional centerpiece, chronicling Orpheus's descent into the underworld with mounting urgency and desperation. Vernon's vocals soar over Mitchell's increasingly complex arrangements, building to a climax that feels genuinely cathartic. The song demonstrates Mitchell's sophisticated understanding of musical theatre dynamics while never abandoning the intimate scale that makes folk music so compelling.

Perhaps most impressive is how Mitchell updates the myth's themes for contemporary audiences without sacrificing its universal resonance. "Why We Build the Wall" proves unnervingly prescient, its call-and-response structure echoing both chain gang work songs and political rallies. The song's exploration of fear-based politics and economic inequality feels ripped from today's headlines, yet it never breaks the spell of the ancient story.

The album's final act maintains the original myth's tragic trajectory—Orpheus's fatal backward glance that loses Eurydice forever—but Mitchell imbues it with additional layers of meaning about trust, doubt, and the fragility of love in harsh times. "His Kiss, the Riot" transforms the moment of loss into something almost transcendent, while the closing "I Raise My Cup" offers a bittersweet meditation on memory and artistic legacy.

*Hadestown* feels like a natural evolution of the American folk tradition's storytelling impulse, standing alongside concept albums like *The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan* and *Joni Mitchell's* *The Hissing of Summer Lawns* in its ambitious scope and thematic coherence. Mitchell's achievement lies not just in successfully adapting classical mythology, but in creating something that feels both ancient and immediate.

The album's subsequent transformation into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical speaks to the strength of Mitchell's original vision, yet this intimate recording remains definitive. Here, unencumbered by theatrical spectacle, the songs breathe with the quiet power of campfire stories and kitchen table confessions. It's folk music at its most ambitious and affecting—proof that the oldest stories still have the power to illuminate our present moment with startling clarity.

*Hadestown* stands as Mitchell's masterpiece, a work of rare vision that honors both its mythic source material and the living tradition of American roots music.