John Wort Hannam Sets New Release
10/20/2009
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(PR) Black Hen Music announces a November 17 release date for Queen's Hotel, the latest album of songs from Canadian singer/songwriter John Wort Hannam. The Black Hen Music label is distributed in the U.S. by Burnside Distribution.
A former ninth-grade language arts teacher on the largest reserve in Canada - The Kanai Nation, part of the Blackfoot Confederacy – John Wort Hannam heard a Loudon Wainwright III album in 1997 and became enthralled with the music and stories. After buying a guitar and learning some chords, he quit teaching in 2002 and set out on the road pursuing his dream of becoming a working musician.
Queen's Hotel is Wort Hannam's fourth full-length CD and second release for Black Hen Music. His last album, Two-Bit Suit, was released in 2007 and produced by Juno award-winner Steve Dawson, who again takes the helm producing 11 tracks of authentic Canadiana folk/roots music on the new CD. The writing, although true to John's narrative story-telling style, is tighter, smarter, more personal, and with a breadth of subject matter not seen on previous recordings. The upbeat "With the Grain" (a song for which Wort Hannam won Grand Prize at the 2009 Calgary Folk Music Festival Songwriting Competition) recalls the conversation where John tells his father he would quit teaching to attempt a shot at performing music. "Worth a Damn", a timeless sounding duet performed with multi-Juno award-winner Jenny Whiteley, is reminiscent of a John Prine/Iris Dement collaboration. Despite the title, "Requiem For A Small Town" is a rollicking 3 and ½ minute look at the town that just never quite made it. The poignant but catchy closing song, "Lucky Strikes," was written after a visit to the infamous Queen's Hotel, located near the Canadian Rockies in the Western Canadian province of Alberta. "When I Drink Too Much" is a humorous tune that begs for a sing-a-long in a funky barroom. Wort Hannam also revisits two songs from previous independent releases: "Church of the Long Grass," which has been called by some "the unofficial anthem of southern Alberta," and "Pier 21," which recounts the immigration of Wort Hannam's family from the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, UK, to Canada in the late '70s.
Queen's Hotel was recorded "live on the floor" at Vancouver's The Factory, with all the musicians in one room facing each other in a circle, and very few overdubs. The resulting sound is immediate, comfortable, warm and inviting. Along with John Wort Hannam on vocals, guitar and tenor guitar, the rest of the band included Steve Dawson on electric guitar, Dobro, National and Weissenborn guitars and pump organ, John Reischman on mandolin and mandola, Rob Becker on upright bass, Geoff Hicks on drums and Jeanne Tolmie, Tyler Bird and Jenny Whiteley on backing vocals.
In addition to numerous Canadian music awards and nominations, John Wort Hannam was the "New Folk" category winner in the 2007 songwriting competition at the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. He will tour extensively in both Canada and the U.S. in support of Queen's Hotel.
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