Annette Hanshaw on Muxtape

Annette Hanshaw – If You Want the Rainbow You Must Have the Rain

2:52
Annette Hanshaw – I Must Have That Man

2:59
Annette Hanshaw – You're the Cream In My Coffee

2:58
Annette Hanshaw – I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling

2:55

Annette Hanshaw was jazz singer durring the golden age of radio, recording over 100 songs before she retired in the late 30s, when she was 35 years old. Her voice is beautiful and it's easy to understand why she's been so widely adored. Annette herself did not think highly of her talents, and articals from the time suggest that her anxiousness about performing live was the driving factor behind her desire to retire from show business.

She passed away in 1985, and her recordings themselves are in the public domain after their 38 year copyright period ran out.

Fast forward to 2008: Animator Nina Paley uses 11 songs from Annette Hanshaw in her gorgeous animated feature Sita Sings the Blues. it's a stunning picture, using four distinct animation styles to weave together a contemporary tale of nina's heartache with a feminist retelling of the Sanskrit Epic Ramayana, with Annette's songs providing delightful bridges that tie the film together.

Alas, while the Annette Hanshaw recordings are in the public domain, the compositions themselves are a different animal After a three year effort just to track down all the publishing rights, The various music publishers that still own the synch rights to the compositions demanded $220,000 to allow for a traditional release of the film.

Too rich for Sita's budget, and the film is stuck in copyright jail. Nina Paley scraped together $50,000 to pay the publishers for a more different kind of movie release. She is distributing Sita Sings the Blues as a CC-Licensed free download from her website, as well as archive.org (where you can also download dozens of public domain Annette Hanshaw tracks).

There will be a limited edition DVD release, and Nina Paley is accepting donations to help her get out of the debt incurred making the film. It's a marvelous piece of work, and I like to think Annette Hanshaw would be proud to see her songs visuallized in this way.

Check it out, and make a donation if you can.
www.sitasingstheblues.com