Why Would I Know - Hannah's Yard
We head to Buckinghamshire for our next excellent young LCM featured artist. At the beating heart of the musical collective known as 'Hannah’s Yard' lies the beautifully understated voice of 21 year old singer Hannah Layton Turner. Think Nora Jones with touches of Katie Melua. The band's music is on the acoustic pop side with a heady fusion of Jazz, Folk and Country. Their debut album ‘Beginnings’ was released on 12 May 2017 and features 14 songs recorded in Hannah’s home town of Olney (not far from Milton Keynes)…the small English town where ‘Amazing Grace’ was written in the 1770s. This wonderful collection of meaningful songs about life and love includes a recording of Hannah at just 15 years of age, when she first met fellow musicians Barnaby Pinny and James Reader.
An upload of the collective’s song and our LCM #TrackOfTheDay 'Why Would I Know' to the BBC Introducing website in September 2015, resulted in a first national radio play on Mark Forrest’s BBC Introducing show the following November. Local station BBC Three Counties Radio immediately awarded the song ‘Introducing Track of the Week’ resulting in cross-station airplay and invitations to perform live on the station.
An official launch of the song was expedited and by February 2016, following a live performance on his BBC Radio Oxford show, Alex Lester played ‘Why Would I Know’ on his Radio Two programme. Hannah’s Yard went on to appear on Robert Elms’ BBC Radio London show at the end of February marking a remarkable six months of progress for Hannah and her musicians.
Excitingly the band supported Gordon Haskell on his UK tour earlier this year.