Join us for the official album launch of Americana Award Winner; Hannah White's launch of her much anticipated album 'Fine Day', which will be released on The Last Music Company.
Set to be a truly unique evening with Hannah directing her largest band to date to bring these exceptional songs to life with her vision for the full production.
Every career path has different twists and turns, but there aren't many in which someone who was a homeless single mother struggling for her very survival becomes one of the most revered singer-songwriters in roots music, and a three-time UK Americana Award winner. In fact, there is one. Her name is Hannah White, and she is about to make 2025 even more of a banner year with the release of her new album Fine Day.
At January's AMA Awards in London, in front of such dignitaries and fellow performers as Lyle Lovett and Candi Staton, Hannah won both UK Artist of the Year and UK Album of the Year for 2023's Sweet Revolution. 2023 was also the year in which she won UK Song of the Year with the arrestingly autobiographical 'Car Crash.'
Along the way, she's toured as special guest of Jools Holland, Ricky Ross and Paul Carrack, released a new single each month for 12 months, been featured on BBC Radio 2 by Cerys Matthews, Bob Harris and BBC 6 Music and played live sessions on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio Ulster. More than ever, Hannah's name is also travelling transatlantically: she has received a highly prestigious invitation from the Americana Music Association to perform an official showcase at Americanafest in Nashville in September.
But even her ever-expanding family of admirers will not quite be ready for what comes next. On Fine Day, an artist who has never been satisfied simply to repeat a successful formula has banished caution and taken her creativity to new heights. With her searingly honest lyricism that is less a trademark and more a way of life, and the inspiring level of musicianship she shares with her fellow players, it's fair to describe Fine Day as the album of her career.
It contains contributions from White's husband and fellow 2025 AMA UK Award-winner, Instrumentalist of the Year Keiron Marshall, on guitar and banjo, as well as such revered performers as pedal steel player Sarah Jory, Mike McGoldrick on low whistle, Gerry Diver on violin and two constants since the first days of Hannah's Nordic Connections line-up, Lars Hammersland on keyboards and Ole Ludvig Krüger on drums, guitar, banjo and trumpet, plus another longtime Norwegian collaborator, Svein Henning Berstad on bass.
Fine Day is a collection of songs that delve into the complexities of love, beauty and grief, but also confront the chaos, violence, and madness of today’s world with White's typical candour and bravery. From the opening chords of the fearlessly challenging 'Good Questions,' which demands answers from the supposed leaders that have broken our planet, you know that, as usual, no subject is beyond her lyrical scope.
As you hear the fingers on the strings and the keys, and as real, tactile band interactions envelop you, there's a reassuring sense of permanence, of a record that will still sound this good in 10 or 20 years. As for genre? It defies them, for as much as Hannah remains a shining light on the Americana scene, these songs and their performances also warmly acknowledge country, folk, pop, blues, rock and even gospel.
Highlights include 'Hard Hitting Memories,' with its almost hymn-like harmonies and natural marriage of country, folk and pop; the brooding verses and driving peaks of 'Man Out There'; catchy crowd-pleasers in White's best tradition as an irresistible live performer such as 'Hyla Karula' and 'Fine Day' itself, with her featherlight vocal touch; another soon-to-be live favourite, the feelgood 'Camberwell'; and the beautiful vulnerability of 'What Do You Take Me For.'
The album culminates in a recording to stop you in your tracks: the extraordinary 'All This Unnecessary Beauty,' a dark and intense examination of the beauty industry illuminated by Diver's violin, Krüger's startling trumpet detail and a piano figure by Hammersland that is haunting to the point of gothic. It's another bold chapter in a story that began when Hannah, born in Sidcup in south-east London, started picking up instruments at an early age. She studied piano because the local borough offered free music lessons to disadvantaged families. "Then I picked up a guitar because my cousin had one," she says, "and I liked it because it's portable and I can grab it anywhere."
Gradually she developed the uniquely believable songwriting style for which she is now so widely respected. “My life will always come out in song," she reflects. "I have to do what I feel inside, and then I feel ok with myself. So when other people respond to that, it's really nice." White remains passionately committed to music as a force for good. “What people want is to play, and hear, music together,” she says.
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