Inspired by teaching songwriting in two southern California area women’s prisons, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Eleni Mandell’s new album Wake Up Again is now available from Yep Roc Records (released on June 7th). Working with the inmates also provided many epiphanies for her as a person, and proved fertile for her as an artist, as captured in the 11 songs on this album, her 11th studio release.
“Some songs were written there, while I was teaching and participating in the assignments that I gave,” says Mandell, “others are portraits or amalgamations of two or more inmates or were inspired by something I heard them say.”
The result of her experience with these women is a set of compellingly personalized portraits and vignettes, probing looks into the lives and minds, the regrets and guilts and hopes of those she met, but ultimately also of her. And us.
Today we’ll be sharing “Circumstance,” one of the singles off Wake Up Again, which was inspired by two different women. Neither accepted responsibility for what lead to their incarceration. One said, “it just happened.” The other woman claimed that it was all her boyfriend’s fault. The word ‘circumstance’ comes from ‘around’ and ‘stand’, which, according to Mandell, applies so well to life in prison, which requires a lot of standing around.
Song: “Circumstance” by Eleni Mandell, available on Spotify
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