Singer/Songwriter/Square Dance Caller/Early Childhood Musician Hannah Shira Naiman has released her 3rd full length album out now on all major platforms. She’ll be celebrating the release with a concert on November 6th at 7:00 pm at the Tranzac Club in Toronto. Opening set will be with Nathan Smith (Barrel Boys) and Alan Mackie (Vinta) All proceeds (after expenses) will go towards the Canadian Perinatal Mental Health Collaborative: an important advocacy group lobbying for a national maternal mental health plan. www.cpmhc.ca Tickets $18 Advance/ $20 Door. For more information please visit any of the links below or Hannah’s website.
Official Album Release Party
November 6th @ The Tranzac (Main Hall),
292 Brunswick Avenue, Toronto
Doors 7 pm, Show 7:30 pm
Opening Set: Nathan Smith (Barrel Boys, Vinta) and Alan Mackie (Vinta, The Bombadills)
Advance $18/Door: $20
Tickets available here.
This is the show you don't want to miss. Hannah will be playing the full album with a full band- that means fiddle, banjo, guitar, bass, drums, *electric guitar* + HORNS.
Hannah says, "I'm very excited to be playing with so many of the fantastic musicians on the album for my hometown community. I'm so excited that, I am prepared to donate any proceeds after expenses to the Canadian Perinatal Mental Health Collaboration. The CPMHC is an organization that is lobbying the federal government to implement a nationwide screening program for new moms. This album was my way to work through some of the struggles I experienced as a new mom. It would mean so much to me if I could give proceeds to this cause."
ABOUT THE ALBUM
It was a dark time for many of us. One by one concerts and dances were canceled as COVID-19 spread. Hannah Shira Naiman recalls feeling hopeful that the spread of the virus would remain contained in countries and communities far from her, and then came the paralyzing fear that accompanied the realization that no community was immune. For Naiman, much of the album was actually written before the pandemic hit, while taking care of her daughter, and as part of a creation residency funded by the Ontario Arts Council. But The Wheels Won’t Go speaks to the hard times we and Naiman have endured, an it’s some of her best work to date.
Writing and recording The Wheels Won't Go took an outstanding amount of work and perseverance from Naiman. Since releasing Know The Mountain (and receiving the CFMA for traditional singer of the year in 2017), she faced an incredible number of obstacles: having a child, moving to North Bay from Toronto (away from a rich community of old-time musicians to a very remote city with very few contacts), a death in the family... and of course, the global pandemic.
Recorded with producer Ken Whiteley in Toronto, each session took place under strict COVID protocols as Omicron was on the rise. Naiman's initial trips to Toronto to record took place amidst vicious ice storms, and the engineer, Nik Tjelos was taking breaks to speak to his family in Ukraine during the final mixes.
With an old-time melody as timeless as the hills – typical for Hannah Shira Naiman – "The Grouse" compares her lengthy search for a home to the relentless motion of the bird, "tippy-tippy-toeing" alongside her. The accompanying video, produced by Tim O’Reilly (The Barrel Boys) at SoundStill Productions, features Naiman on the banjo.
Naiman wrote the swampy, driving, album title track "The Wheels Won’t Go" in the winter of 2020, and it recalls fear and denial of the COVID-19 pandemic’s early stages just around the time that her gigs started to disappear. The song takes the traditional form of Mother/Father/Sister/Brother. It was released as a single to media acclaim and extensive airplay nationally and internationally.
"Rosieta Gal" is a spry, uptempo tribute to Naiman's daughter, that takes flight on the wings of Nathan Smith's fiddle and Naiman's banjo.
"Little Black Train" features a striking rhythmic interpretation of a traditional Carter Family song, led off the top by Ken Whiteley's catchy bass harmonica sound. As the song develops, Abigail Lapell and Smith's harmonies provide a perfect complement to Naiman's voice.
"Caroline Collins," inspired by Naiman’s own experience with postpartum depression, is a dark, haunting ballad that tells of a woman whose momentary dalliance results in the unexpected responsibility of caring for a newborn.
The sweet, poignant "Ones & Twos," written for Naiman’s good friends on their wedding day, is burnished by William Carn's lovely, processional-style arrangement, for Carn's trombone and Olivia Esther's french horn.
Naiman wrote "Winter" to capture the silence and isolation of the deepest part of the season in her new home of Huntsville, in Northern Ontario. Drawing on shapenote harmony and song structure, the song rests on a largely droning horn arrangement that covers it like a blanket of snow.
"Mary O'Matansie" works with a template of traditional Appalachian “playparties” and singing games. The song took on a new life when recording in the studio, and features a jazz/funk vibe, especially in the horn lines.
The slow, mournful "Vinegar Pie" was previously released as a single in 2021, and takes its name from a depression-era recipe for a cheap meal, or "desperation pie." The song was written around the anniversary of the first lockdown of the pandemic, when vaccines were slow to arrive in Ontario. It was written and recorded remotely with producer Don Kerr.
Like "Caroline Collins," the somber, atmospheric "Oh the Mother" (again featuring Abigail Lapell) examines a mother’s heavy, complex responsibility to her kin in pandemic times. It was written during the Christmas holidays in 2021, catalyzed by a chance encounter with a doe and her fawn, and a medieval prayer against the plague.
"Hartman’s Delight" is a happy traditional tune, and the album's only instrumental, written in honour of a delicious chocolate bar! This song, like Naiman’s songwriting, begins with a traditional sound, (in this case the gourd banjo) and ends with a modern twist.
In the end, Naiman has plumbed the depths of adversity, and returned with the jewels of her music. In doing so, she’s created a work of enduring melody, great beauty, and content that speaks to eternal truth.