About
Vanessa Mitchell is a San Diego-based singer-songwriter who writes about the love that defines us and the loss that breaks us.
Her sophomore album, Love Will Remain, released in 2023, moves through the Five Stages of Grief and finds its way to strangers across the world who feel less alone in theirs.
Her debut album came out in 2010. Then life filled up. She built an award-winning custom diamond ring studio, married her teenage sweetheart, and raised three kids. For 11 years, the music waited.
That sophomore album almost didn't happen.
But it came back the way grief does, without asking permission.
When her father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Vanessa started writing again, not because she planned to, but because she didn't know where else to put what she couldn't say out loud.
He was supposed to fly to Nashville to watch her record.
He died one month before their trip.
What followed stunned her: messages from strangers who'd lost parents, children, spouses… pieces of themselves. People who said her songs gave words to what 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 we left unsaid.
Someone will hear these songs and feel less alone. 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's still writing. Not just about grief, because life is wider than loss.
Some music finds you exactly when you need it.
