Hannah Kaminer first came to my attention with her wonderful “Heavy on the Vine” album which I reviewed for AUK and was one of my favourites of 2024. She is in fact my favourite female solo artist. I really like, for example, Caitlin Rose, Courtney Marie Andrews, Amanda Anne Platt and Margo Price, but Hannah just about shades it over all of these. Praise indeed.
Her first album “Acre by Acre” (2015) showcases her sweet vocals which are accompanied by low-key guitar, banjo, steel guitar and fiddle. The phrase “low-key” might sound soporific, but her work is anything but. Her songs here have a serene, calming nature but with great melodies which make them welcome every time you hear them. Later albums become slightly more vigorous and varied.
Songs like ‘Mama’ and ‘The Ledger’ deal with relationships, as do most of her songs. Her words are never overblown but that gives them an authenticity; you feel that they reflect realistic emotions and concerns and are more interesting as a result. A highlight, ‘Yancey County’, which has a bit of a swing to it, is about a region near to her home in North Carolina close to the Smoky Mountains and you can hear the Appalachian influence in her music. Her geographical roots are also seen in later work, which includes ‘Asheville’, where she complains of the gentrification of that city, and ‘Knoxville’ which deals with a past relationship “You let me go like you never had a hold on me”.
“Heavy Magnolias” (2018) is a little livelier and catchier than her debut, with a bit more variety in the songs and instruments used. For example, ‘Open Book’ has some lead guitar, and the bluesy ‘Old Heart’ has slide guitar. The perils of romantic love come up in ‘Home’s Just a Place’ where she tells of her wandering nature and the feeling of wanting to run away: “Love for a girl like me is an uphill climb”. At one point in ‘Don’t Open Your Heart’ she warns a lover not to do this because “it’s dangerous”. In ‘Just a Man’ she says “I want to kiss you so hard that the pain stops”.
The title track of the second album describes the passage of the seasons with the heavy magnolias being “sticky and sweet”. Hannah seems to take a sensuous delight in the nature around her, has started gardening and has joined a community garden. She herself says that her music “is evocative of the landscape where it was created”. This is also reflected in the title track of her third album “Heavy on the Vine”, a tribute to her friend folk singer Kate Wolf who died young: “One more summer/A little more time/ To see this flower blooming/Heavy on the vine”.
This album is a real treat musically with no weak tracks. Altcountry NL describes it as an “addictively beautiful record!” and Americana Highways writes that it is “An exceptional album”. Although I described Hannah earlier as a solo artist, she credits her band The Wistfuls on the album. These are Kevin Williams (various keys), Ross Montsinger (drums), Melissa Hyman (bass, harmony vocals), Jackson Grimm (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, mandolin, harmony vocals) and Jackson Dulaney (pedal steel, lap steel, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, dobro). Together they produced the record and created a soulful sound with piano, Hammond organ, Wurlitzer and synth added to more traditional country instruments. Just one example of this is ‘Irene’, a great country-soul track where she can’t get her lover to look up from her phone.
Non-romantic relationships make more of an appearance here and you see another dimension to Hannah. ‘Everlasting Arms’ is about her leaving the religious faith she was brought up with and linked to this is ‘Childish Things’ which concerns this upbringing and her parents: “Here comes the sermon, don’t question me/ Better be silent if you can’t agree”. In ‘Time’s Too Fast’ she mentions becoming an aunt and ‘Wish We Could Talk’ is directed to an estranged friend.
Hannah has only played in the UK on one tour, supporting fellow Ashevillian Amanda Anne Platt. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to see her but our own Graeme Tait reviewed the Nottingham gig for AUK and said “At times reminiscent of Iris Dement, full of emotional honesty and intensity… a songwriter of the highest order. Hannah Kaminer is a name we should all be hearing a lot more of.” So it’s not just me! Her combination of a beautifully clear voice, and consistently excellent songs with interesting, thoughtful and touching words makes her stand out and well worth investigating.
