Gig Review: Hannah and The Wars @ The Wine Cellar, Auckland 18/4/15

A well attired and intelligent looking group settled into the cosy chairs and couches at Auckland’s intimate Wine Cellar to hear the 1^st NZ performance of Kiwi girl Hannah Curwood’s latest release Hannah and the Wars. Recently I had listened and positively reviewed the album and was now eager to hear her performing live, and here she was armed only with a guitar and a microphone, and so unaided by an band she was laid bare to the audience and we to the influence of her music.

Hannah performed her songs with authority and style, the raw sound of her souring vocals captured your attention and you were hostage to the feelings her music conjures, you could feel a distant yearning and remoteness, especially if you close your eyes! The soulfulness of Hannah’s vocal takes you on a journey through an emotional landscape, that is at times bleak and remote, but always beautiful and real.

Hannah’s electric guitar was strummed rhythmically and was full of nice harmonic sparkle but in many ways it never was going to make much of an impression due to the strength and character of Hannah’s smooth vocal chords. An appreciative audience took in each song with undivided attention, and warmly applauded her efforts on this night. Amongst the audience were a number friends that Hannah hasn’t seen in years, two of which she cajoled into joining her to provide some very sweet backing vocal harmonies.

As a whole Hannah’s tuneful and heartfelt songs offer a therapeutic quality, an escape into a musical space where you don’t need to analyse the lyrics to know the meaning of the songs, you just feel it, and that is an experience that you rarely get with such clarity, but on this night I sure did, and I’m sure everyone else did too.