Stream: Eleni Mandell, ‘Be Together’

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Eleni Mandell
Eleni Mandell

Singer-songwriter Eleni Mandell’s latest single is a meditation on her (and, by transfer, our) multiple and often conflicting selves. “Split myself in half / I don’t know if it’s my future or if it’s my past,” is how she begins the rough-edged rocker “Be Together,” the second song on her forthcoming album “Wake Up Again.”

As we all know, balancing roles and identities, and the paths they lead us down, can be treacherous. Nowhere was that more apparent than the places Mandell worked the past couple of years — the Lynwood Women’s Jail and then the California Institute for Women in Chino — where she taught songwriting to inmates.

Mandell worked through Jail Guitar Doors, the organization founded by MC5’s Wayne Kramer and Billy Bragg, and the William James Association to bring music to bring music to incarcerated women. The experience reinforced the songwriter’s belief “in the power of music and how it could improve lives, even if only by increments.” And it informed the songs on “Wake Up Again” (out June 7), her 12th solo and fourth for Yep Roc Records.

“Some songs were written there, while I was teaching and participating in the assignments that I gave,” Mandell explains. “Others are portraits or amalgamations of two or more inmates or were inspired by something I heard them say.”

Of “Be Together,” Mandell says: “My life as a musician and my life as a returning student and working mother were colliding. I felt conflicted and sad about it. I thought about how much I wanted to keep that old part of me, the musician, alive and somehow make it work with the new part of me, a teacher and day-jobber. It was a tough transition. Simultaneously, I was listening to stories from these women who had left their lives behind as nurses, lawyers, teachers, housewives and yes, in some cases, drug dealers.”

Produced by Sheldon Gromberg, the album features Mandell joined by guitarist Milo Jones, bassist Ryan Feves and drummer Kevin Fitzgerald.

||| Stream: “Be Together”

||| Also: Watch the video for “Circumstance”

||| Previously: “Don’t Forget How Good It Is,” “Unsung Hero” tribute, “Empty Locket,” “What Can Love Do”