Elephant Eye - Hannah White
Our next LCM featured artist is Hannah White a wonderful South London based singer-songwriter and co-owner of The Sound Lounge. Hannah released her excellent latest album in February and our LCM #SongOfTheDay is the anthemic title track 'Elephant Eye'. Hannah gave me a sneaky listen of the track just after it was mastered. My reaction was 'Wow! That great!....I can imagine it being played on BBC Radio 2'. Already championed by many radio DJ's and producers, and with a recent UAT session with the legendary Bob Harris, it will be interesting to see how much coverage Elephant Eye receives. We hope that the new album gets the attention that it richly deserves :)
The album was recorded and produced by Nigel Stonier at the Air Tight Studios in Manchester. Hannah has gathered a great team of musicians for the project. Nigel Stonier (Thea Gilmore, Martha Wainwright, Joan Baez, Tracey Browne) plays several instruments, the AMA UK award winning Chris J Hillman adds pedal steel while Jimmy Forres handles guitar duties and Paul Beavis (Andy Fairweather Low, Sandi Thom) is the percussionist driving them on.
Hannah has battled her way to gaining a loyal following of fans around the UK, whilst maintaining a wholly independent approach to her career. Her music is influenced by country, blues, folk, pop and soul but has a fresh sound coupled with a social conscience that remains distinctly her own. With a voice that can switch from a sweet Nashville ballad to a heartfelt and reflective song full of blues, her songs draw from a rich well of life experiences and have been heard on the national airwaves of BBC Radio 2, Amazing Radio, Chris Country Radio as well major regional UK radio shows such as; BBC London, BBC Kent, BBC Merseyside, BBC Manchester & BBC Introducing as well as being played on international TV several times on the 'Keep It Country' show.
Hannah has wowed audiences at shows with multi-Grammy Award winning Tim O’Brien, Thea Gilmore, Laurence Fox, Judie Tzuke and Ben Haenow, headlined at a sold-out Union Chapel in London, performed for Whispering Bob Harris, performed at major festivals and picked up press plaudits from R2 Magazine, Country People Magazine, Blues Matters and many more.
The future looks bright for Hannah's and her music and we are hoping that The Sound Lounge will soon find a great new permanent home in London. It is a venue that we wholeheartedly support here at LCM and we look forward to running more of our LCM gigs in collaboration with the new venue in the future.