Four years to complete the circle.The intervening period has seen a seismic change in the career of Hannah White. In May 2021, a new world was emerging for live music. In a lot of ways it turned out to be like the old one. An early post-Covid gig saw Hannah White and Keiron Marshall play a memorable show at the Kitchen Garden in the Birmingham suburb of Kings Heath. It opened the door on an artist who epitomised ‘show don’t tell’. One whose songs and vocals convey every sinew of life emotion.
Fast forward to June 2025 and an eventual return to the area to headline a night, though this time a skip over the Sandwell/Birmingham border to venture deep into a suburban community fighting to forge an identity. The West Midlands grand stages have hosted Hannah and Keiron in support slots since but you can’t beat owning the space for the night. Thimblemill Library defiantly flies the arts flag in a borough not always stacked with positivity. When hosting acts like Hannah White it connects real people with real music. The cornerstone of any meaningful artistic interaction.
Perhaps it is the sense of bringing your music to a real place where ordinary people seek to embellish their minds that made Hannah White click in the makeshift performing space at the heart of a public library. A grounded artist sharing real stories capable of forming much of the surrounding fiction. Ultimately, it’s how the song is expressed that splits Hannah White from her peers. Sharing them in the raw emotive way they were built while mixing beauty with imperfection.
Perfection did exist in a single song introduction. Tell a story and drop a solitary bombshell line in at the end with no fanfare. The implicit poetic side to ‘Car Crash’ fills in the gaps. The pre-encore end wasn’t too shabby either with a standing ovation saluting the cracking sound to ‘Chain of Ours’ where an infectious chorus melody and sizzling guitar solo ignite any room. The equally catchy ‘Right on Time’ brought its love song qualities earlier in the set and if there’s been a better UK country song in the 2020s than ‘Broken Bird’ it needs to come out of the shadows. Hannah White struggles to define her music. Leave that to the mind of the listener. The bulk of her material isn’t as country as the latter but each composition is wrapped in the sentiment of Tammy, Kitty, Dolly and Loretta.
On the steamy night akin with the southern US, an extensive evening of music ran across three sets. Mountaintop Junkshop opened with 30 minutes of harmony-led folk-styled Americana blending elegance and raw sincerity. They proved a good booking. Hannah White and her band played two sets with the momentum of the second taking it past the hour mark. The show was the final date of a tour promoting the year-long monthly single release. A label initiative keeping Hannah in the recording spotlight throughout 2024.
Although these songs wouldn’t have hanged together to form an album, we learned they will be included on a bonus disc in the CD version of an upcoming record. The September release of FINE DAY is a mouth watering prospect for the second half of the year.
Four years is too long between headline Hannah White shows in the West Midlands. The trajectory of her career should see that corrected. The promise of a cautious step back in 2021 has blossomed into a top level performer in 2025. Hannah White owns whatever platform given. It just happened to be a library floor on this mid-summer evening. A real story wonderfully told in words and music.
