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Review: Hannah Scott, Downend Folk & Roots – ‘It is everything that makes life worth contemplating’
It doesn’t seem like five minutes ago that Hannah Scott played at Downend Folk & Roots, supporting the wonderful Bella Hardy.
That night she was captivating, singing a handful of songs that spoke directly to the hearts of everyone in the room.
Her role as a future headliner was secured; just imagine what a whole set would be like, we all thought.
It turns out, of course, that a whole set by Hannah Scott is an hour and a half of spilled emotions, of love and life, of grief and joy. It is everything that makes life worth contemplating.
Much of her set is made up of her latest album, Absence of Doubt, an intensely personal record that says much about her relationship with her closest family.
At times it is as though she has beckoned you into the most secret room in her house so that she can show you her treasured photographs.
Her album Absence of Doubt is the first she has both written and co-produced
Bigger Than My Body is about an overwhelming love and feels, suitably, anthemic.
With Scott at the keyboard and Matt Helm on guitar, there’s an undeniable feeling that you are in the presence of a serious songwriter.
The emotions are so huge, handled with such skill, yet beautifully undercut by a high voice that shows vulnerability.
This is the sort of song that you’d imagine Radio 2 loving, it would sit perfectly next to the likes of Laura Marling and Ed Sheeran.
It is however, when Scott sings of her family that all of that love is made most obvious.
Clearly, her dad played a huge part in her life and two of her most arresting songs are about him.
Carry You Out is precision tooled for audience tears.
Dealing with the carrying of her father’s coffin, it is full of quiet strength and total heartbreak.
Never rising beyond a measured stride, it is a beautiful hymn to someone loved and much missed.
My Dad & I is more upbeat, remembering happy times, and stays exactly the right side of sentimental.
Scott’s mum gets a look in on In Your Light and it is, again, full of enormous emotions that push against her fragile voice.
These songs are so personal it almost seems rude to listen to them, as though you’re eavesdropping on private moments.
On the other hand, of course, they deal in the universal, they are those conversations that we, somehow, never get to have.
Helm’s shimmery, echoey guitar twinkles gorgeously behind Shape—a song driven by anger and hurt—and Threads, adding further layers to Scott’s intense feelings.
Threads ploughs a similar furrow to the latest Katherine Priddy album, being about a childhood home, but has a lovely sing-along that brings the whole room together.
Scott has, once again, plugged into something that everyone understands.
The support for the evening comes from Coruja Jones, the indie-folk project of songwriter Dan Jones.
Deliciously hazy and dreamy, all pulses are slowed as he unfurls cascading soundscapes.
He plays everything from his latest EP, Undo, the five tracks simply beautiful and lyrical.
Honesty Honestly carries hints of John Martyn while there’s a tiny hint of Richard Hawley about The Shore.
These songs are all about setting the mood, they’re folk by way of Shoegaze, they are the gentle breeze on a morning walk.
So in touch with the surroundings was Jones that, on the lovely Little Space, even the birds joined in.
Both Scott and Jones have an uncanny way of helping us to embrace everything that is around us. From the natural world to our own raw emotions, the two of them remind us of all that is important
All photos: Barry Savell
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