Hannah & Nathan Love & Labour
This showcase is drenched in harmonies that straddle the likes of Ontario, Canada’s Kate & Anna McGarrigle & New Jersey’s Roches (“Hammond Song”) – if you can imagine. But it’s there, the loveliness & the quirkiness. Hannah Shira Naiman (vocals/harmony/banjo/fiddle) & Nathan Smith (vocals/harmony/fiddle/guitar/foot) have a luminous sound – nothing grating or embellished. It’s all airy, definitely folky with the clawhammer banjo, acoustic guitar picking & atmospheric waves that arrive with “Little Bird.”
While not exactly as intense as Richard & Linda Thompson or Clive Gregson & Christine Collister, the duo has a colorful hue similar to the ‘60s Richard & Mimi Farina. Lovely vocalizing, good harmonies, & excellent accompaniment. The lyrics, while not heady or weighty, are not cute, despite the occasional cliché. They’re craftsmen with their compositions. “Blood Is Thicker Than Water” is a typical cliché, but the piece overall – well, that’s solid.
There are 11 Appalachian-oriented harmonic pourings recorded on Wolfe Island, Ontario, for the collaborative debut Love & Labour (Dropped May 15/Independent/40:04). The album has 7 originals, 2 instrumentals, a contemporary cover, & 2 traditional covers. Co-produced by Jason Mercer with Hannah & Nathan.
A rollicking good song is “Fortune Coming” which has thrust throughout & excellent vocals. The songs, despite their old-folk traditions & bluegrass leanings, never sound dated since the duo establishes itself with contemporary consistency. Their musical application is modernized; though “Poor Cock Robin” is a little dark, it has muscle in its arrangement. The duo isn’t necessarily in the same realm as groups like Curved Air, or Pentangle, & not as folk-rich as Fairport Convention. Those bands wallow in far more complex instrumental styles. But Hannah & Nathan have their fingers on their fascinating ideas. “Poor Cock Robin” is as tight as anything Fairport Convention’s done.
The instrumentation is always true. Expertise is evident; the skill is polished. The duo successfully perpetuates a ‘sound’ that, despite its traditional flavor, is renewed with every saw across the fiddle or picking on the banjo. With “Maggie” & “Little Baby James,” the duo switches gears ever so slightly & sounds more like they’re working the late Gram Parsons’ side of the street vocally. It’s good, it keeps them diversified, sweet-sounding & invokes yet another era of country music that wasn’t hokey but more homey, rural & accomplished. Good singing structure throughout.
However, the McGarrigle Sisters’ vocal rich quality surfaces with the expressiveness of the lovely “Younger Days.” Superb. Just to touch the McGarrigle Sisters musical hem is recommendation enough for Hannah & Nathan – it’s well-deserved too.
Highlights – “Little Bird,” “Blood Is Thicker Than Water,” “Fortune Coming,” “Love & Labour,” “Poor Cock Robin,” “Maggie,” “Little Baby James,” “Turtle Dove,” & “Younger Days.”
Musicians – Tim O’Reilly (bass), Gary Craig (drums) & Jim Bowskill (pedal steel/dobro).
Photo courtesy of Jen Squires. CD @ https://hannahandnathanmusic.com/album/3975118/love-and-labour