Who performs “Any Way the Wind Blows” on the Broadway cast album?

Eva Noblezada as Eurydice with Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, and Kay Trinidad as the Fates, plus André De Shields as Hermes.

When was the complete OBCR available digitally?

July 26, 2019, following a staggered digital rollout across June and July.

Where was the album recorded?

DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York, April 28-30, 2019.

Is there an official commentary version with behind-the-song notes?

Yes, “Talking Hadestown” includes “Talking Any Way the Wind Blows,” released November 1, 2024.

Any Way the Wind Blows Lyrics – Hadestown

Any Way the Wind Blows Lyrics

Hermes, The Fates, Eurydice, Orpheus

[FATES]
In the fever of a world in flames
In the season of the hurricanes
Flood will get you if the fire don’t
Any way the wind blows

And there ain’t a thing that you can do
When the weather takes a turn on you
‘Cept for hurry up and hit the road
Any way the wind blows

Sister's gone, gone the gypsy route
Brother's gone, gone for a job down south
Ain’t nobody gonna stick around
When the dark clouds roll
Any way the wind blows

In the valley of the exodus
In the belly of a bowl of dust
Crows and buzzards flying low
Any way the wind blows

No use talking of the past, it’s passed
Set out walking and you don’t look back
Where you’re goin’ there ain’t no one knows
Any way the wind blows

Sister's gone, gone the gypsy route
Brother's gone, gone for a job down south
Gone the same way as the shantytown
And the traveling show
Any way the wind blows
Last Update: August, 31st 2025

Song Overview

Any Way the Wind Blows lyrics by Eva Noblezada, Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer & Kay Trinidad — Eva Noblezada, Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer & Kay Trinidad are singing the 'Any Way the Wind Blows' lyrics in the music video.

“Any Way the Wind Blows” drops us straight into Hadestown’s rough weather system. Eurydice clocks the hunger math, Hermes frames the street scene, and the Fates exhale that sneaky Wind Theme that keeps threading the show. It sits as track 2 on the Hadestown Original Broadway Cast Recording, released via a staggered “character drop” schedule and completed on July 26, 2019, the same cycle that later powered the album to a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album.

Review & Highlights

Scene from Any Way the Wind Blows by Eva Noblezada, Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer & Kay Trinidad — Scene from 'Any Way the Wind Blows'.

Creation History

The OBCR was recorded April 28-30, 2019 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, then rolled out in digital “character drops” through June and July, with the final batch arriving July 26, 2019. Producers of the album are David Lai, Todd Sickafoose, and Anaïs Mitchell.

Heard in sequence, this track acts like a weather report with teeth. The lyrics map a town where seasons misfire and neighbors scatter, while the groove walks with an old-work-song sway. The Fates hover like a pressure system, pushing Eurydice’s lines off balance.

Key takeaways: the chorus’s title line functions more like policy than poetry, the orchestration favors clarity over sheen, and the staging uses tiny actions - a lit match, a breath - to show how survival sits on a knife edge. The Wind Theme seeded here reappears later, quietly binding scenes.

Verse 1

Eurydice names the new climate and the exit plan. Consonants lead, vowels hang back. You can almost hear boots on gravel.

Chorus

“Any way the wind blows” stops being a shrug and becomes a rule of motion - move fast, travel light, trust little.

Exchange/Bridge

Hermes keeps it chatty, a guide’s patter between squalls, sketching Orpheus without the halo.

Final Build

The Fates’ ooohs tilt the room while Eurydice’s pragmatism hardens. By the cutoff, you’ve absorbed a whole town’s forecast without a single lecture.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Eva Noblezada, Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer & Kay Trinidad performing Any Way the Wind Blows — Performance in the music video.

This song introduces the survival code of Hadestown - weather as policy, appetite as clock. Folk theatre energy meets Americana grit, with a steady, swinging pulse under talk-sung lines.

“The weather ain’t the way it was before.”

That’s less a slogan than a hometown bulletin, and it frames the whole show’s scarcity logic.

The emotional arc begins pragmatic and ends steely. Eurydice doesn’t romanticize risk; she budgets it.

“Everybody is a fair weather friend.”

The idiom lands literally in this world, where friendship evaporates with the barometer.

Hermes works like a street reporter - the story’s guide, not its judge.

“Anybody got a match?”

A tiny prop becomes thesis: warmth can be lit or blown out by any passing force, including three voices with scissors for smiles.

The Fates aren’t just characters; they’re a pressure front inside Eurydice’s head, always there, always humming.

“Always singing in the back of your mind.”

Once you hear that, you can’t un-hear it when they return later.

Orpheus enters as rumor before he’s a man.

“He sang just like a bird.”

Bird imagery links him to Hermes’ “wing” and ties glitter to fragility - a good song can lift you, but a crosswind decides the rest.

Structurally, the piece is lean: verse, refrain, patter, out. The orchestra trades dazzle for air - guitar and rhythm carry, reeds and brass color, trombone glints like streetlight on wet pavement.

“The Fates introduce the Wind Theme.”

You feel the motif more than you hear it named, which is the point.

Shot of Any Way the Wind Blows by Eva Noblezada, Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer & Kay Trinidad — Picture from 'Any Way the Wind Blows' video.

Context matters: Hadestown’s OBCR was released in timed drops, which fed fan theories and let the Wind Theme echo across weeks.

“Turn on you.”

The text keeps saying change is coming; the release strategy embodied it.

Production & Instrumentation

Original arrangements and orchestrations by Michael Chorney and Todd Sickafoose; the Broadway band leans on piano-accordion, trombone-glockenspiel, drums, guitar, bass, violin, cello - that windswept, woody palette you hear all night.

Historical Threads

The song wasn’t on the 2010 concept album; Anaïs Mitchell later cut a studio version for her 2014 record “Xoa,” proof the melody existed before Broadway’s concrete set it in place.

Key Facts

Featured: Eva Noblezada, Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, Kay Trinidad, with André De Shields as Hermes.
Composer: Anaïs Mitchell.
Producer: David Lai, Todd Sickafoose, Anaïs Mitchell.
Release Date: July 26, 2019 - final digital drop completion.
Genre: Musical theater, folk, Americana.
Instruments: piano-accordion, trombone-glockenspiel, drums-percussion, guitar, double bass, violin, cello.
Label: Sing It Again Records - Hadestown Broadway under exclusive license to Sing It Again, LLC.
Mood: narrative, restless, wind-tossed.
Length: 3:45.
Track #: 2.
Language: English.
Album: Hadestown (Original Broadway Cast Recording).
Music style: story-song with Fates’ chorus punctures.
Poetic meter: mostly conversational; refrains hit in clipped, trochaic bursts.

Questions and Answers

Who performs “Any Way the Wind Blows” on the Broadway cast album?: Eva Noblezada as Eurydice with Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, and Kay Trinidad as the Fates, plus André De Shields as Hermes.
When was the complete OBCR available digitally?: July 26, 2019, after a staggered multi-week rollout.
How long is this track?: 3 minutes 45 seconds.
Where was the album recorded?: At the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York, April 28-30, 2019.
Is there an official commentary version with behind-the-song notes?: Yes - “Talking Hadestown” includes “Talking Any Way the Wind Blows,” released November 1, 2024.

Awards and Chart Positions

The parent album won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.

Billboard peaks for the OBCR: No. 1 Cast Albums, No. 4 Independent Albums, No. 49 Billboard 200.

How to Sing “Any Way the Wind Blows”?

Think grounded and speech-forward. The Broadway recording sits around 89 BPM in F major, most often felt in 3-4 - the tempo breathes enough for diction to carry the story.

Eurydice: aim for conversational belt in the low-mid, with clean front-edge consonants on weather words. Start phrases on a sigh of air, then firm up on the idioms. The Fates: tight blend, almost wind-like, entrances dead in tune. Hermes: sit in talk-sing, slide across bar lines, and smile through the warning.

Mic’d or not, let vowels stay narrow so the groove keeps walking. If you’re staging the match moment, breathe as if the flame could go out - because in Hadestown, it can.

Notes on versions: the official audio is on YouTube via Sing It Again Records, and the track streams on major platforms at 3:45. Mitchell’s 2014 studio take on “Any Way the Wind Blows” appears on “Xoa,” predating Broadway’s staging. A 2024 “Talking Hadestown” set adds a commentary cut.

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