Alice Di Micele (pronounced DeeMissEllie) is an Americana/folk singer-songwriter based in Southern Oregon. ‘Every Seed We Plant’ is her sixteenth release with a strong focus on finding mindfulness and maintaining a sense of wellbeing.
In many ways, it’s like a musical version of a self-help book. For example, Long Dry Winter is about grieving and growing and “finding new ways of believing beyond all doubt.” There are also meditations on the significance of loss, freedom and loneliness. She says: “My job as a musician is to communicate emotion and stir that place inside that feels connected to other souls.”
She collaborated with producer Bret Levick, who co-produced and arranged the album and co-wrote the opening track, For Granted an emotionally charged country soul ballad (“Baby pleeeeease spend a little time with me, cos I neeeeed to feel your love tenderly”.)
The title track, Every Seed, was written as a tribute to her close friend and elder of the Takelma Tribe, Agnes Pilgrim Baker.
There’s quite a nice mix of styles and moods. Free is a lighter love song reflecting on the paradox of needing solitude yet craving intimacy. With Sunrise, the focus is on fun and sensuality whilst being attentive to quietening the mind. Despatch is the most overtly political of the tracks; addressing black rights and police oppression.
From the point of view of awareness and compassion, the album cannot be faulted. The drawback is that being so controlled and worthy it lacks some vital elements of spark and spontaneity.
