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Ana Egge on stage Friday at the Recovery Lounge

UPPER JAY – The Recovery Lounge will host Ana Egge at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4 with David Moss (cello, harmony) and Alex Hargreaves (fiddle, harmony).

Admission is $15 at the door.

“We were always the outsiders,” folk songwriter Ana Egge said of her early roots in a small North Dakota town of 50 people. “I was taught how to shoot a gun and how to enjoy alfalfa sprouts and tofu, raised by two back-to-the-land hippies. My folks loved the outdoors and eccentric people; I ran around barefoot and learned to ride a motorcycle when I was 5.

“I grew up with all the time and space in the world.”

Egge has since traded the openness of the American Plains for the untamable wilderness of New York City, recorded seven albums, and worked with musical legends such as Ron Sexsmith and Steve Earle.

She’s been around the horn of life’s experiences, having gotten married and become a mother, but that childhood spirit of freedom has matured on her latest album, “Bright Shadow.”

Since recording “Bright Shadow,” Egge’s daughter was born and her mother died, and in retrospect, she says, the songs on the album mirror these intense and formative life changes. With a deeply supportive marriage to her wife of seven years, Egge felt for the first time that she could feel comfortable being beautiful on stage.

“That might sound strange but it’s true,” she said. “After having our baby I felt the same kind of personal permission arise in me about being able to be comforting, giving, and sweetly mellow. On ‘Bad Blood’ I was working through intense issues I’d been hiding from writing about for years, but with ‘Bright Shadow’ I found myself beyond this trying or not trying. It’s spiritual and warm and life confirming.”

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