Leaving Eden

'Miranda Hope emerges into the league of Americana singer-songwriters with her own distinct and poetic perspective on life, love, and the eternal road. A little more Appalachia than Lucinda, a little more Nashville than Natalie, Miranda's music is laced with bittersweet truisms that already resonate with us all, she just has a way of pointing them out. Just as Tom Waits articulates the raw truths for which we can never quite find the right words, her work on Leaving Eden somehow leaves you feeling a little more whole.' -- Chip Warren Miranda Hope made her first public appearance at the age of three, in 1974, when she sang 'You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby' with her paternal grandfather, Bob Hope, and Arthur Fiedler's Boston Pops.__ She grew up in Washington, D.C., singing along to records -- the 'Annie' soundtrack evolved into Billie Joel's 'Glass Houses,' which became Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and finished up as Pink Floyd's 'The Wall.' One heck of a weird, long song. She bought her first guitar at a flea market north of Paris when she was 25. Cracked body, rusted strings, no brand name, out of tune, $50 - she took it home and promptly broke the first string she tried to tighten. Still,from the moment that she played her first notes on that 5-string, she was hooked. The impulse that led to that purchase was Mary Chapin Carpenter's I am a Town -- a song so beautiful, that knowing the words and singing along was not enough. 'I need to get inside that song,' she said. 'I need to own it.' She begged chords from friends, learned songs, and studied guitar with Val Mackend in New York while pursuing a master's degree in Theatre at Columbia University. She moved to rural Virginia, wrote songs in a log cabin, played open mic nights and gigs, while working as an English/Drama/Music/Science/Yoga teacher, a counselor, an actor, a director, a writer, a film editor, a bartender, a waitress, a llama trainer, and a sushi roller. Through it all, there was that guitar. Leaving Eden is a collection of songs, some of which date back to 1996. The feel is both familiar -- a female singer-songwriter putting out Americana folk/rock -- and new - in it's fresh, surprising approach to lyrics and melody. Miranda cares deeply about finding new lyrics, writing honest music, and shedding light on this thing we do called living. In the summer of 2008, she teamed up with Nashville artists Mack Starks, Neilson Hubbard, and Kirk Yoquelet to write, rewrite, create and record. (See the links page for more about them.)