hannah claire
Arlington, Texas, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2013 | SELF
Music
Press
Hannah Claire’s Every Little Sound
Beware the surface charms of soft voices and youthful, pretty faces. They sometimes mask a steely romantic obsessiveness and impressive knowledge of relationship politics.
Such is the case with Hannah Claire, an 18-year-old singer-songwriter from Arlington who’s been honing her gifts in North Texas and Austin clubs for years now. Her debut album, Every Little Sound, is a modest marvel of lyrical detail and memorable melody. It’s a song collection you need to hear a couple of times to really feel how attuned Claire is to the unflattering, uncomfortable details of heartbreak, rejection, and those desperate quicksand sensations that come on when you’re in the middle of a breakup.
Vocally, Claire has been compared to Norah Jones, and since the younger artist has a penchant for writing unsentimentally about romantic endings, Taylor Swift comparisons may be natural, too. But to these middle-aged ears, Claire’s simple, breathy delivery is reminiscent of Suzanne Vega. Like Vega, Claire seems a little detached, standing perpetually at the edge of sorrow but never wanting to fully dive in, and that self-awareness lends her vocals even more poignancy.
Luckily, Every Little Sound opts for spare, lovely-but-not-treacly folk-rock guitar and drum arrangements to best showcase those unnerving powers of observation. Opener “Where Did You Go” surges along on little spikes of rhythm guitar, with Claire’s girlish vocals multi-tracked and competing with one another like the voices inside her own head wondering why she was dumped.
“Terrified” is an even scarier document of regret and self-doubt. Above the alluring tug of acoustic strum-along notes, the singer helplessly breathes, “Maybe next time our love will be magnified / Our dreams will be realized / Maybe next time I won’t be terrified.”
The title track introduces mournful strokes of violin and eerie harpsichord-like sparkles, as Claire hears her lover’s voice everywhere she goes. The solo-acoustic “Lucky You” is a bitterly humorous middle finger extended to a paramour who dropped her after musical success (“Well, lookie there / You’ve got everything we dreamed we’d share”).
Every Little Sound features striking original compositions you can imagine being covered by other singers, both male and female, in virtually any musical genre. Maybe that’s the biggest compliment anyone can pay to the young Hannah Claire –– her articulate scab-picking feels less like teen angst than universal heartache. –– Jimmy Fowler - Fort Worth Weekly
Hannah Claire, ‘Every Little Sound’
Arlington singer-songwriter Hannah Claire’s voice sneaks up on you: breezy, sweet and with a hint of fragility.
Such an instrument is an arresting lure, and one which hooks listeners from the opening moments of Every Little Sound, the 16-year-old’s latest LP.
Collaborating with songwriters Josh Goode and Bradley Prokope (Claire wrote two tracks on her own), Claire spins familiar tales of longing and heartbreak, but manages to make these well-worn tropes feel fresh — Where Did You Go and Terrified is a phenomenal one-two punch.
Online: hannahclairemusic.com
Preston Jones, 817-390-7713 Twitter: @prestonjones - DFW.com
Discography
- Lucky You
- Waiting Room
- Someone New
- Where Did You Go
- Terrified
- Every Little Sound
- Earthquake
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Bio
Hannah Claire is a 17 year old singer-songwriter from Arlington, Texas who is frequently compared to Colbie Caillat, Suzanne Vega, Meiko, and Norah Jones, with a recent reviewer describing her voice as “complete musical bliss to my ears!”.
Fort Worth Weekly hailed her debut album, “Every Little Sound” as “a modest marvel of lyrical detail and memorable melody” with “striking original compositions you can imagine being covered by other singers”. DFW.com magazine praised Hannah’s voice as one that “sneaks up on you: breezy, sweet and with a hint of fragility” which “hooks listeners from the opening moments”.
Hannah has been performing for years at venues across Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin to include the The Voodoo Stage at The House of Blues, In Accord Deep Ellum, The Curtain Club, Poor David's Pub, Opening Bell Coffee, El Arroyo's, The Fort Worth Food Truck Park, The Arlington Country Music Revue (formerly Johnnie High's), the Grapevine Opry, and coffee shops across Dallas Fort Worth. She was on the Main Stage at the 2014 Austin Pecan Street Festival and was a performer at the 2014 "30A Songwriters Festival" in Destin, Florida.
Her original music is played frequently on a the local college radio station KNTU and her video for "Empty Box" was recently selected by White Knight World Media/Pulse records to be featured at "over 8,500 retails stores, eateries and food courts across America" and was also selected by Fuse TV On Demand to be one of their featured videos in July 2012.
Hannah's song "Lucky You" was a finalist in the 2012 International Songwriting Competition - teen category. "Girl I used to Be" was a finalist in the 2012 USA Songwriting Competition.
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