Ida (band)
Ida is an American indie rock band from New York City. The group formed in Brooklyn in 1992 as the duo of Daniel Littleton and Elizabeth Mitchell. Later Karla Schickele and Michael Littleton (Daniel's brother, nicknamed "Miggy") joined the group. In 1999 Michael left the group to pursue other musical interests.
The group's folk-rock sound is gentle, melodic, and often sparse, with sensitive male-female harmonies provided by Mitchell and Daniel Littleton (who married in 1999). The group shares a stylistic affinity with the Minnesota band Low (whose singers are also a married couple), with which Ida has toured.
The band is named for Ida Machado Schafer, the grandmother of Mitchell's old friend, the artist and playwright Erin Courtney. Schafer was 92 years old at the time Mitchell and Littleton formed the group.
Ida is friends with the band Secret Stars featuring Karate guitarist Geoff Farina and Jodi Buonanno. On the Ida album Ten Small Paces, they cover a Secret Stars song titled Shoe-In and perform an original song Les Etoiles Secretes (French for "The Secret Stars") which references the band name specifically.
The current lineup includes Mitchell, Littleton, Schickele, drummer Ruth Keating, and violinist Jean Cook. They are also frequently joined by pedal steel player Matt Sutton.
Side projects
Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton have also recorded one album as Nanang Tatang and both artists have also recorded solo albums. Mitchell and Daniel Littleton have also recorded three albums of children's music together. The first is called You Are My Flower, recorded in one day and released in 1998, the second called You Are My Sunshine, released in 2002, and the third called You Are My Little Bird, released in 2006 (also prominently featuring their daughter Storey Lee). They occasionally perform sets of children's music live as well. Karla Schickele has also recorded with Beekeeper and K. Daniel Littleton has performed with the Hated, His Name Is Alive and Jenny Toomey's Liquorice. Elizabeth Mitchell previously performed in a duo with Lisa Loeb; Mitchell and Littleton both perform on Loeb's hit single "Stay (I Missed You)." Mitchell and Loeb also recorded a children's album in May 2004 entitled Catch the Moon.
Discography
Albums
- Tales of Brave Ida (1994)
- I Know About You (1996)
- Ten Small Paces (1997)
- Losing True (EP, 1998)
- You Are My Flower (1998)
- Will You Find Me (2000)
- Tour Support (2000)
- The Braille Night (2001)
- Shhh.... (2002)
- Heart Like a River (2005)
- The Bottom of the Hill (2-CD set, 2005)
With Retsin
- The Ida Retsin Family: Volume One (1998)
Compilation appearances
- This Is Next Year: A Brooklyn-Based Compilation compilation track (2001)