About
Vanessa Mitchell is a San Diego-based singer-songwriter who graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan.
Her sophomore album, Love Will Remain, released in 2023, honors the Five Stages of Grief. It reached strangers worldwide who listened and felt understood. Less alone in their grief.
Vanessa's debut album came out in 2010, and she hesitated in self-doubt. Then, as it does, life continued. As a trained master diamond setter, she built an award-winning custom engagement ring studio, married her teenage sweetheart, and raised three kids. For 11 years, the music waited.
Her sophomore album almost didn't happen, but it showed up the way death does, without asking permission.
When her father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Vanessa started writing songs again. Not because she planned to, but because she didn't know where else to put all the BIG feelings she couldn't say out loud.
They were supposed to fly to Nashville together so he could watch her record the songs he inspired.
Her father, Patrick Mitchell, died one month before their trip.
She went anyway, and the result was messages from around the world. Strangers who'd lost parents, children, spouses… People who said the songs gave words to how they were feeling.
“My dad was my North Star,” Vanessa says. “After he was diagnosed, our family talked all day about what needed to be done medically, but the elephant in the room was the fact that he might not survive.
We hid our tears to stay strong for each other. Music allowed me to express what was left unsaid.
Someone will hear these songs and feel less alone, which I believe is a good thing. And if we're not doing good things, what are we doing?"
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Patrick Mitchell was the kind of person who leaves a mark on everyone who knew him. Three days after he passed, NBC Nightly News told the story of who he was and the bond they shared. Watch the story
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Vanessa continues to write. Not only about grief because life is wider than loss.
Music tends to meet you exactly where you are in life.
