Best of British Showcase #7 – Hannah White
Welcome to a new series on Belles and Gals where Nick Cantwell (twitter.com/nickbelles_gals) will be highlighting some of the very best acts on the UK country music scene, casting an eye over their music and chatting to the artists too. The series continues today with the wonderful Hannah White!
Hannah White has been an artist we’ve regularly featured on Belles and Gals, ever since the start in fact, which coincided with the release of her fantastic ‘I’ll Make You Strong’ song and equally excellent accompanying video. So impressed was I, that I had to see Hannah play live and was lucky enough to see her at the Green Note in Camden in August of that year (you can see how impressed I was by the following review – http://www.bellesandgals.com/2016/08/28/hannah-white-at-the-green-note-review/)
Fast forward three years and it’s pretty clear that Hannah has gone from strength to strength and has become one of the leading lights on the UK scene. Hannah has an originality in her songwriting that is rare, and is always willing to face topics of the day head on – with thought provoking lyrics while still maintaining a tunefulness in her music, delivered perfectly with her emotive and impressive vocals.
2018 saw the release of Hannah’s ‘Elephant Eye’ album (below), where standout tracks for me are ‘Get Your Easy On’ (a track that will certainly appeal to country fans), while ‘Molly’s Drum’, a stark and almost haunting number which shows another side to Hannah’s talent.
Hannah also appeared in a Belles and Gals show back in 2017, when she featured in an in-the-round evening alongside other Belles and Gals favourites Hannah Rose Platt and Liv Austen at The Sound Lounge, an evening which I look back on to this day as one of the best live gigs we’ve ever put on – it was a joy to be there.
I had the chance to chat with Hannah a couple of weeks ago, where she revealed that she is on the verge of recording a new album (in fact, the album might well be recorded in the meantime!).
I started by asking Hannah how she feels she has changed as an artist in the last three years since we first featured her. “Oh my gosh, has it really been that long!? I think I have changed, mainly in terms of recording. I feel like I’ve got much more confidence about what I want to lay down and what I want to say, and how I want to say it – how I want that sound to be. I think I’m more deeply rooted in Americana too. I think we go through phases of what we’re listening to and what influences us and life changes too – at the moment I feel very settled in that Americana space.”
I then asked Hannah about her previous album ‘Elephant Eye’ and if she looked back on the critically acclaimed release with pride? “I do, yeah I do. Recording an album is always very emotional and not easy, so I’ve got a whole load of emotions around it. I’m really proud of it, and thanks to that album I’ve got a management team, I’ve been played on 6 Music and BBC Introducing and I’ve had such support and that’s thanks to that album, and I’m very grateful for it. So yeah, it wasn’t an easy one to record, but it’s been brilliant.”
Soon after the interview Hannah revealed that she would be heading out to Norway to record her new album with the Nordic Connections. Check out this brilliant video below –
The notes below the video on YouTube tell a wonderful story in themselves:
“On 19th December 2018 two bands, one from the UK and one from Norway, shared a stage in Bergen in a beautiful manor house. Together we became Hannah White and The Nordic Connections and created a sound that we believe is absolutely magical. This is the moment when it happened. We hope you enjoy the songs.”
It’s shaping up to be another big year for Hannah White and I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds!
Hannah White Socials
Website
YouTube
Spotify
