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Writer's pictureCHRIS FARLIE

SINGLE REVIEW: HANNAH WHITE - MOTHER YOU ARE


As if last years excellent "Sweet Revolution" album was not enough the ever creative Hannah White is setting out on a new campaign to release a single a month for a year. Released as part of International Women’s Day with The Last Music Co with many of the personnel that made "Sweet Revolution" such a success this is a completely different sound, a stirring anthem that has definite celtic vibes from stat to finish.


Hannah who can adjust her voice from Patsy Cline country to swinging Sixties harmonies if required with seemingly little effort finds the change to this anthemic folk song an easy hurdle to clear.The first verse is probably musically closer to where Hannah normally operates, it is in many ways a set up verse for the chorus to come, highlighting it as a truism throughout the ages.


"It’s a restless wind when it’s blowing

Away any fragment of truth

Obscuring an ode to the unspoken

A song for ancestors to youth"


 The last line ends with Hannah all but inviting the listener to join in with her as she approaches the chorus


"Oh mother you are

Mother you will

Whether by chance, by force or careful

Plan or design

No business of mine

But there'll be no change of mind in the morning"


The lines tumble into each other and there is no distinction made about the route to motherhood - as Hannah notes "No business of mine"


It Is undoubtedly Gerry Diver's prominent fiddle that gives the tune the Celtic feel, ably helped by the warm double bass of Svein Henning Berstad along with Lars Hammersland's accordion, they combine to great effect.


This is by no means a rose tinted view of motherhood - the following lines paint a picture that is hard for anyone to hear and Hannah is able to imbue that feeling of loneliness into the tone of her delivery incredibly effectively.


"Alone in the morning

Alone in the evening

Alone in the morning

Alone, alone"


The song closes on the final line from the chours


"There'll be no change of mind in the morning"


It would be a foolish person who would presume to even begin to guess what the sound or subject matter will be of Hannah's future releases - one thing is for sure, it is going to a highlight of each month finding out.



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