{"id":12797,"date":"2013-02-20T11:54:17","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T16:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=12797"},"modified":"2013-02-20T11:57:38","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T16:57:38","slug":"midweek-music-break-hannalee-valhalla-and-never-been-to-memphis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/midweek-music-break-hannalee-valhalla-and-never-been-to-memphis\/","title":{"rendered":"Midweek Music Break: Hannalee, “Valhalla” and “Never Been to Memphis”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hannalee:<\/a><\/p>\n

Seattle’s Hannalee<\/a> comprises the almost impossibly photogenic threesome of husband-and-wife Michael Harley* and Anna-Lisa Notter, and childhood friend Fidelia Rowe. When you look at any of their group photos — even without having heard their music, or knowing anything more about them — you might think:\u00a0Wow. I thought I’d heard of most of the San Francisco groups from the ’60s… how’d I miss\u00a0<\/em>them?<\/em><\/p>\n

If you take a gander at some of their other photos, like this one<\/a>, you may find the San Francisco folk-rockers comparison almost too apt for coincidence.<\/p>\n

Looks (as we all know) can be deceiving. But in Hannalee’s case, you might not be far off the mark. Oh, they don’t specialize at all in psychedelia or any such genres; but the\u00a0sense<\/em> of the late ’60s is there, all right — the sense of distant possibilities, brought suddenly within reach via<\/em> music.<\/p>\n

It’s folk music, sort of, and that’s how they seem to identify themselves. (Their Bandcamp<\/a> profile says: “Blending the sounds of traditional folk music with elements of dark, neverland whimsy, Hannalee creates a unique music strange and familiar at once.”) But their three-part harmonies can also verge on something older, even choral. And of course, if they’re singing in an old\u00a0church<\/em>\u00a0(Seattle’s Fremont Abbey<\/a>) with strings behind them… The song is “Valhalla,” from the first of four seasons-of-the-year EPs (the autumn title, Cucurbita<\/em>\u00a0— the pumpkin genus — just released a few months ago):<\/p>\n