On March 22 of this year, Joanna allowed the world to know joy for the first time in 8 years when she performed a stunning selection of new music, as the surprise guest at Fleet Foxes' 'Spring Recital' show.
One of the songs she debuted was 'Marie at the Mill', an intricate and masterful ballad exploring the life of Marie Russak Hotchener who, among other things, designed the breathtaking 'Moorcrest' estate that the Newsombergs now call home.
The most significant detail of Russak Hotchener's life, in terms of Andy and Joanna's enduring love, is the fact that Marie, a firm believer in reincarnation, was survived by her husband Henry who, at the time of her death said:
"Marie's passing was natural and beautiful - like her. We have so long been unified in our three bodies - that there was no wrench, no sense of separation. She and I remain one and go on together. I feel a glorious exaltation that she is going on to higher work and then to get a new body when I hope to woo and win her again - honor beyond belief!"
In 'Marie at the Mill', Joanna translates this sentiment into characteristically captivating lyrics:
"And when my work here is through,
Henry, will you find me anew
a little stranger,
my old friend,
hold me and win me
again and again and again,
all over again,
all over again,
all over again"
The fated quality of the Newsombergs finding their way to one another, and then to a home desgined by a woman whose life shared so many parallels with Joanna's (performer, Nevada City resident, Mills College attendee, etc.), is weaved into the song, picking up on themes of love, death, and rebirth that also permeate so much of her earlier work - especially 'Divers', a record which she has explicitly linked with her feelings about her marriage.
Whilst the thought of Andy being Joanna's 'Henry' - 'wooing and winning' her across multiple lifetimes - may seem a little far-fetched, he put it best himself when he said (during his 'You made it Weird' podcast appearance) "There's things like that, all the time, that I just let myself think because [...] I might as well believe that my life is magical and meant to be wonderful."
I guess it would be tough to be married to Joanna and not feel that way!
Andy once told Busy Phillips, during an interview on her since canceled talkshow, that Joanna enjoys teasing him for the 'whispers on sosch' about his 'glow-up'.
Of course, real ones (especially Joanna) know that he's been consistently gorgeous forever.
That said, the Newsombergs have undergone one significant glow up since 2017. Whilst their daughter's arrival was leaked via pap photos and only confirmed by the couple in response, the arrival of their son was announced by none other than Andy's childhood hero, Weird Al, who - in explaining Andy's absence from the 'semi-autobiographical' masterpiece 'Weird' stated:
Congrats to Andy and Joanna on the world's 'weirdest' birth announcement!