Photo by Steven DewallWay the heck back in 2004, we called Mirah's C'mon Miracle "the album we've been waiting for." Which would make the forthcoming (a)spera, that record's proper follow-up, um...the album we've been waiting for for nearly five years?Well hang in there a little longer, kids. We need only wait a few months more-- until March 12, to be precise-- for Mirah's new one to hit shelves courtesy of K Records. (a)spera finds the good vibes queen working in cahoots once again with longtime pal Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie/Microphones fame, as well as Decemberist-about-town Chris Funk, Tara Jane O'Neil, and Lori Goldston of Spectratone International (with whom Mirah teamed for 2007 multimedia project and detour record Share This Place: Stories and Observations).Engineering duties for the new album fell on veteran board-man Tucker Martine and Norfork & Western frontguy Adam Selzer. A little interweb research, meanwhile, reveals that Mirah appears to be playing Latin word games with that title there, since "aspera" translates to "hardship" or "adversity" while "a spera" means "to hope." Clever lady, that Mirah. Catch her live at a few Pacific Northwest spots in the weeks to come.read more